Father
by DragonsandInk
Summary: From the time when Igneel first found Natsu in the forest to when he was forced to leave him, this is about the bond of father and son between the Dragon and the Dragon Slayer. AU
1. Dragons and humans

Alsarnia: Hi everyone! So, I've recently started really liking Fairy Tail!  
>Natsu: Haha! Who couldn't?<br>Lucy: -sweatdrop-  
>Alsarnia: Right…And I noticed the lack of fanfictions that are about Natsu.<br>Natsu: Damn straight!  
>Lucy: Natsu, just shut up.<br>Alsarnia: I mean, there are plenty of romance ones between Natsu and Lucy…  
>Natsu: WHAT?<br>Lucy: EH?! –blushes-  
>Alsarnia: Or Natsu and Erza…<br>Natsu: _WHAT?  
><em>Lucy: That sounds frightening…  
>Alsarnia: and don't get me started on the Natsu and Gray…<br>Natsu: _**WHAT?  
><strong>_Lucy: Not going to think about it, not going to think about it!  
>Alsarnia: Although, I will admit I have been browsing the Nalu quite a bit lately…<br>Natsu: -passes out-  
>Lucy: EH?<br>Alsarnia: Heheh, anyways, so I made, possibly a one-shot, story of how Natsu and Igneel first met.  
>Natsu: -perks up- Did you say Igneel?<br>Alsarnia: Yeah, he's going to be everywhere in this fanfic  
>Lucy: Why isn't he in the author's notes?<br>Alsarnia: He didn't fit…  
>Natsu: …<br>Lucy: Disclaimer: Alsarnia does not own Fairy Tail  
>Natsu: Obviously, Jii-chan does!<br>Alsarnia: Right… Fairy tail © Hiro Mashima

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><p>Igneel was not happy. In fact, you could probably say that he was the least happy dragon-scratch that-<em>creature<em> on the planet.

Why? Why, you ask? You dare ask the _Great Igneel_ why he's extremely pissed at that very moment? I wouldn't if I were you. I'll answer for him: Igneel was not happy simply because he didn't feel like being happy at that very moment.

There was nothing more to it other than that. You could say he woke up on the wrong side of the cave that morning, but not to his face, because if you did you could be certain to never see the light of day ever again.

With a harrumph he decided to take a stroll through the woods to try and let some of his dark aura leak out. He had been living in the same cave for nearly 2 months now, rather long to be honest. He was usually pretty nomadic, liking to move around to keep from being seen from humans. However this particular spot had been very comfortable and peaceful without a single run-in with a human as of yet and Igneel had been enjoying it.

Until that morning of course. Maybe that was the reason he was so miffed; he had rarely stayed in one place for so long and it was probably grating on his nerves for staying in the same cave in the same forest under the same sky for 2 whole months. However, he had to admit it was peaceful there and, although he had woken up with a dark attitude that morning, he didn't feel inclined to leave the cave he had made his home just yet.

It was a peaceful cave in a peaceful forest under a peaceful sky, unlike any he had seen up until then. The forest had this…_smell_ to it that seemed to calm the senses, even those of a dragon, and the sounds of the woodland creatures calmed one's soul. Not to mention the beautiful lake that was stationed in the middle of the forest that was a perfect water source and a nice spot for relaxing.

That was exactly where Igneel was heading that day, to the lake that he felt peace at. Even the air and clouds that day were calm and happy to contrast Igneel's mood. The whole day was filled with happiness and tranquility despite Igneel's horrible temperament. As he tromped through the forest he could feel the happy in the air grating on his nerves.

Why was he so damn angry today? He couldn't put a claw on the reason. It was just out of his reach, the reason that made him so—

"Wooooaaaaaaahhhhhhh"

Igneel stopped in his tracks. He turned his head to the right and felt all the happy around him stop, as it had frozen the air and him along with it. His dark aura was also frozen. He didn't know why, but that moment had iced up everything other than the waves of awe that came off the little creature before him.

Where had that…_thing_ come from anyways?

They must've stayed in the same position for at least 5 minutes, neither feeling inclined to move. Igneel because…well…he was still kind of shocked to his core about what was happening and the little thing because it was just so excited it couldn't find the right words or movements to express itself just yet.

A bird flew between them, chirruping for a moment before leaving and Igneel found himself sweating, although still not of a mind to move from his current position.

"You're…huge!" the little thing finally managed.

Igneel felt his dark mood come back to him. He hadn't seen a human in 2 months, which was probably why he didn't notice the scent, and was annoyed by the very presence of one, even if it was just a little brat. But that brat just stood there and stared up at him in awe. Suddenly Igneel wondered if this little thing was what had peeved him off that day and that he had a premonition about it earlier, making him already feel annoyed before he had even met the thing.

Should he just kill it and get it over with? But that would make others come looking for the thing, which meant that the humans would become bothersome and he would have to leave his forest. And he kind of wanted to stay in the forest he was in. But he couldn't just leave the thing to go and blabber to whomever else was in the woods.

How many were there? He took a deep breath, unbeknownst to the thing, but couldn't smell any other human smells in the forest. So the thing must have wandered in there on accident and had unluckily met with the fire dragon.

Well, there wasn't much else he could do. He felt kind of bad for just killing the thing without it having done anything, but he couldn't just let it live and do whatever it wanted with _his_ forest, now could he? Plus, maybe he could get rid of all the stress that he had immersed himself in that day.

He took a deep breath, ready to release a flaming barrage upon the young boy and end its life quickly.

"Did you know you're a dragon?!" the thing asked excitedly.

As Igneel breathed it came out as hot air in his surprise. What the…

The boy looked up expectantly at the salamander, waiting for an answer. Igneel stared at the thing for a while. Why was it not cowering in fear from his large form and terrifying eyes and aura?

He decided there was something wrong with this thing. How else could it stand there and be totally unafraid of him? The little thing stared up at him with bright eyes and a wide smile.

He noted that the human's hair was a pink color, like cherry blossom trees in full bloom and that its eyes were a very dark color, almost like coal. Contrasting, uncommon colors. He also noticed it wasn't wearing very many clothes; in fact, it wasn't wearing _any_ clothes, which was uncommon from what he'd seen in humans. Maybe they'd finally realized how ridiculous it was? He raised a scaly eyebrow at the thing. He raised a scaly eyebrow at the thing. What was with it?

The human just kept smiling and suddenly brightened even more. Igneel's other eyebrow raised and its face burst into a beaming look. He experimented with the thing for a few minutes, finding it amusing to watch its expression change every time he moved a slight bit. At last the human giggled as Igneel stuck his tongue out at it.

He blinked at the child for a moment, and then swelled with pride. He, Igneel the Great Fire Dragon had gotten a human child to _giggle_. Oh, how he would love to see Grandine's face. Motherly and kind Grandine hearing that he, _Igneel, _was able to make a small human child _giggle_.

He felt his annoyance at the world lower slightly, more intrigued with the odd child than how his aura had been so dark just a bit earlier. With a sigh he realized that killing the child would be a shame, especially since it hadn't done anything.

Plus, he couldn't really boast to Grandine about making a child laugh if he killed it right afterwards, could he? So he scowled down at the little boy, unsure of what he should do with it.

The little boy cocked his head to the side and looked at the great dragon in curiosity. "Are you here all alone, Mr. Dragon?"

Igneel glared down at the child. _Mr. Dragon_…really? He really, _really_, didn't want to talk to this little human however capable he was of speaking its language. It couldn't be avoided though, and he felt like if he didn't answer the child's questions then the thing wouldn't shut up.

He harrumphed. "Do _not_ call me that."

The boy seemed to grow ever more excited when Igneel spoke to him. That was probably a bad call on his part…

"You can talk!"

He glared down at the child, who didn't flinch. "Yes, I can talk," he snapped impatiently, "What is it that you want, human?"

"Did you know you're a dragon?"

Igneel scowled at the child's obvious stupidity. "Yes, did you know you're a human?"

The boy looked down at himself and, to Igneel's amusement, looked shocked. "No…I didn't know! Wow!"

If you dare try and say that the Great Igneel thought that the child's antics were kind of _cute_ then you'd be dead in the next instant. But the boy seemed to be completely ignorant of the danger in front of him and smiled happily up at the dragon that harrumphed again.

Igneel stuck his snout right in the boy's little face and blew, making the child's hair blow backwards. The boy took a deep breath of the air that came out of the dragon's nostrils, noticing the odd smell it had. It smelled like…fire and ash.

"What is it that you want, boy?" the dragon asked darkly.

The boy blinked and stared at the dragon, then frowned and looked around the forest that they were in.

"I dunno."

Igneel growled in annoyance. "Where are your parents?"

The boy fidgeted nervously and glanced around. Now what was wrong? "I…dunno."

Igneel scowled. "Why are you in this forest?"

"I dunno."

"Did you run away from home?"

"No?"

Igneel looked at the child oddly; that was the first moderately straight answer the boy had given him. If he hadn't run away, then why was the child all alone in the forest without a clue as to where his parents were? The Great Igneel found this all very odd.

He frowned. "Fine then, we'll just have to find your parents." The boy blinked in confusion as the dragon took a deep sniff of the boy, breathing in his entire scent and trying to place all the smells, seeing if he could find other human scents on the boy.

But, as he assessed the boy's smell, he frowned. This boy…didn't smell exactly human…he smelled like the forest. The trees, the air, the animals, he smelled like the forest and nothing else. Igneel's eyes lowered in confusion and annoyance. Well that didn't make things any easier.

Maybe he was just losing his touch when it came to scent. He growled and the boy looked at him in confusion. The boy's parents were probably looking for him by now and would be frolicking around _his_ forest. If he could just get the kid back to them without the parents seeing him then maybe they would brush off whatever the child says about dragons and they would all leave his forest.

Now was the problem of finding the parents…

He scowled at the little boy. "Follow me. We're going to look for your parents in the forest, got that?"

The boy nodded eagerly.

"When we find them I don't ever want you coming back to this forest again, got that?"

The boy nodded again.

"Good." He looked at the spot where the boy had come out of the trees from. Better with a place to start, right? He moved fluidly into the trees with the little boy following close behind. They walked in silence for a while, Igneel taking long sniffs every once and a while to try and detect any human scents, and the boy following him obediently wherever he went.

Eventually the boy asked, "Why do you keep breathing like that?"

"I'm smelling the air."

"Why?"

"To see if I can smell any other humans."

The boy's eyes widened. "You can really smell that far?!"

Igneel looked at the boy with slight confusion. See, Igneel had made a point up till then to not spend any time with humans. He felt they were a weak species that would only bother him if he stayed close to them at all, and so he didn't inconvenience himself to learn anything significant about them.

"Can't you smell the forest?"

The boy took a deep breath. He tilted his head to the side. "I can just smell the trees."

"There is much more than just trees in this forest. There are plenty of animals, plants, trees, rivers, lakes, and even your and my scents are different. You just need to train your nose to be able to pick out the different scents."

As they kept walking, Igneel noticed that the boy made a point to sniff everything around him, the plants, the trees, he even stooped to sniff the ground at one point. Igneel didn't say anything, just continued to walk through the forest and sniff the air, searching for some kind of clue to where the child's parents were.

They had been searching for a few hours and the boy hadn't made a single noise until suddenly he growled at the dragon. Igneel growled back, but didn't trouble himself with it anymore than that.

A little while later the child growled again and Igneel growled louder. Was the boy doing some kind of contest? Trying to prove his growl better than the Great Igneel's?

When he growled a third time Igneel turned to face him and growled loudly at the little boy. The boy blinked and stared at the great dragon.

"What was that?" he asked, unfazed.

Igneel looked at him carefully. "Weren't you trying to prove yourself better than I?"

The boy suppressed a giggle. "No, why would I do that?"

At that moment another growl came from the boy, however, Igneel noticed that it didn't come from the boy's mouth. There was a pause then…

"Do it again."

The boy blinked. "Wha-"

"Do it again. How did you make that growl without your mouth?"

The boy giggled. "I can't do it whenever I want! It's this thing that's growling!"

Igneel poked the boy's midsection, having never seen a stomach growl before. "You're stomach? And why is it making such a noise?"

"Well, I'm kinda hungry…"

"Hungry…"

"I want some food."

"I know what it means!" he snapped.

He grumbled slightly. What did humans eat? Plants…perhaps, but how did he know which plants to give him? Or maybe they didn't eat plants, or else he would've eaten some off the forest floor by now, right?

Maybe meat…but he didn't see any animals in the immediate area, and he wanted the growling from the boy to stop.

Well, that just left…He pulled down a few branches from a nearby tree and tossed them in front of the boy who stared at them. A small spout of fire and the branches were set aflame. The boy gazed in wonder at the fire, and then looked up at the mighty dragon.

"Well, eat," Igneel said impatiently.

The boy's eyes widened. "I can't eat fire!"

Igneel was becoming annoyed. "You will eat it; I won't give you any more food." The boy looked warily down at the flames that angrily ate at the branches. He picked up one of the branches and eyed the flames. He looked up at the dragon that waited impatiently for the boy to be done with the meal he had presented. After all, no flames were more delicious than his own.

The boy, with either a burst of courage or a burst of stupid, thrust his face into the flame and tried to take a bite. He pulled back almost immediately and, in a panic, tried to pat out the flames that were attempting to eat away at his hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes.

When he was sure that the fire was out on his face he paused and dropped the still flaming stick. Igneel was confused as the boy just stood there. After a moment his face turned a bright angry red, black in some massively burned spots, and his skin began to pucker and puff up painfully.

The boy didn't say anything but only stood there in shock. Igneel, on the other hand, laughed his great scaly ass off.

You see, Igneel didn't know anything about burns. Of course, dragons got burns, but in a different sort of way. When a dragon was burned the scales would turn a darker color and would pucker slightly, but if they were severely burned they would fall off.

But that was the only time he had ever seen burns, whenever he saw a human near fire it was his fire and his fire would immediately burn them to a crisp so that they were but a lump of burned flesh and nothing more, no longer moving, talking, or feeling pain.

But this young boy was alive still and could still feel pain, though he was in shock for the moment. If he wasn't in pain it actually would be a funny sight, his face all puffed up like a balloon and red with a surprised look on his face. So Igneel, knowing nothing about the pain that the child was going through laughed at the situation.

Then came a noise that pierced him, hard. That sound practically shot him and thus stopped his laughing immediately. The boy was making a noise that scattered any nearby animals and made even the Great Igneel wince. The child screamed and cried as tears washed down his face and onto the burns which made them sting more from the salt and making him cry harder.

Igneel, for the first time in his life, was at a complete loss of what to do. The boy stood there, in pain and crying and screaming, for what Igneel didn't know, but he could tell that this was his fault, somehow.

He looked around in a panic, for what he had no idea, maybe a person? Some water to try and wash away the red on the child's face? No, if water could help then why weren't the tears doing anything?

Maybe he could get Grandine…he shivered; if Grandine found out he had made this boy cry then he would certainly be in for it. But what was he to do? The boy wouldn't stop his crying…

Finally, in anger and annoyance at himself and the noise that came from the boy, he pushed his snout into the boy's face and yelled, "SHUT UP!"

However, the boy didn't shut up and did probably what Igneel would never have guessed anyone to do in a million years. The boy pressed forward and hugged the great dragon's snout and cried into his scales.

The warmth of Igneel's scales made the burns more painful, but the boy ignored it and just cried into the dragon, not noticing how uncomfortable it was for the creature.

For the second time that day, Igneel was at a loss. He couldn't move. Either because he didn't want to upset the child or couldn't was a question to be had. The boy made no move to let go of the great dragon, rather held him tighter with each wracking sob he made.

Igneel didn't move. He refused to move for a long time and before either of them knew it hours had passed with Igneel spending the time completely flabbergasted and the boy crying his little heart out.

Finally, the child ran out of tears and cried dry sobs and Igneel blinked.

"Are you…done?"

The boy took a while to answer, but finally nodded and looked at the dragon in the eye.

"It-sob-hurts."

Igneel couldn't help but find himself biting his tongue and feeling bad for the child.

"I…know…"

The boy sniffled.

"Let's…go wash it off…"

Not really knowing what else to do, Igneel carefully lifted the boy onto his back and slowly tromped through the forest to the lake, trying not to jostle the child on his back. When they made it to the lake he didn't enjoy the scenery like he normally did, but rather focused on the young boy and the burns on his face that had begun to swell even more and scab over the blackened parts.

He set the boy in front of the lake and watched, expecting the child to know what to do. But, unfortunately for him, the boy just looked up at the dragon with sad and pain filled eyes.

Igneel grumbled; what trouble this had turned into. He took a mouthful of water and sprayed it onto the boy and his face. The child sputtered for a moment, then a look of relief passed over his eyes for a moment before the pain returned and he whimpered slightly again.

There, that was it; the water seemed to sooth the burns on his face. He picked the boy up between his talons, to which the boy yelped at, and dunked him into the lake.

After a few moments of struggling the relief that came to the child's burns was a soothing feeling that he liked. After a minute, Igneel brought him back up and was surprised to see the child smiling.

"Is that better?" he asked.

The boy nodded happily, resisting a grimace as the movement made his face hot again. Igneel noticed that some of the swelling had gone down in the boy's face and it didn't look so painful as it had before.

He harrumphed as the boy's stomach growled again. "Let's try this again."

He took another branch from a tree and lit it on fire. The boy shied away from the fire.

Igneel scowled. "Come on now, if you can't eat fire then you'll starve to death."

"But…I _can't_ eat fire."

Igneel scowled harder. "Yes, you can."

"Then…I don't know how…"

Igneel scowled a while longer, and when he'd had enough scowling, he sighed. Without an explanation he wrapped a talon around the boy and pulled the child toward him so the tiny boy was nestled by his chest.

"Listen to my breathing."

They spent a while in that position. Igneel, keeping his breathing even and long and the boy standing by him, listening. After a little while, he could hear the child's breathing slow, and then start to mix with his own. Their breathing was even and matched perfectly.

Igneel took a breath slightly faster than before and, without missing a beat; the child did exactly the same at the same time. They continued standing there for a little while as the flame on the stick died down to just over the size of a candle flame.

Igneel had no idea why he had done that. Not only had human touch repulsed him before, but after the child had cried all over his scales earlier he did not feel so inclined to be close to the boy even more. But, something in his instincts just told him that this was what he needed to do. And hell come over the world if a dragon ever disobeyed his instincts.

Igneel backed away from the embrace and handed the stick to the child once again. "Now, keep your breathing even with mine and eat."

The little boy stared at the fire, but the fear from before had dwindled to almost nothing. The boy placed his mouth around the flame, keeping his breathing even with the fire dragon's all the time.

He made a face, and then slowly worked his mouth, giving a confused then curious look. He moved his jaw as if chewing; then swallowed deeply.

"It tastes…good."

Igneel huffed up. "Well of course it tastes good! It was fire made by the Great Igneel after all!"

The boy looked up at him. "Your name is…Igneel?"

The dragon gave him a 'what do you think?' look and the child smiled.

"That's a nice name."

He stared at the boy. What…what was that? He wasn't sure what that moment was, but it was unfamiliar to the great dragon. He shook his great head. Never mind that.

"Are you still hungry?"

"Yes."

He took a larger branch and set it aflame again. The boy hungrily ate it up, stuffing his face with the fire. Igneel did this a few times for the child, who ate each branch of fire with gusto.

Igneel watched the boy eat with amusement. It was intriguing to see the boy test each flame before eating it fully and display the same range of emotions each time. Though it certainly wasn't cute.

Igneel glanced up at the sun. Oh no, it was that time already?

He scowled. "Boy, you need to go home."

The child blinked up at him in confusion. "Where's…home?"

Igneel scowled. "Well, I don't know. You need to find it yourself. I can't help you anymore."

The thing looked crestfallen. "But…I…I don't know what to do…"

Igneel sighed. "You should just get out of this forest and ask another human to help you. I don't know about any humans or who your parents could be. You should just leave and never tell anyone that you ever met me…"

"But…are you saying I should forget you?!"

Igneel turned away from the human, it was becoming too familiar.

The thing cried out to him, "I don't want to forget you Igneel! Please don't leave me! My parents are…"

Igneel looked back for only a moment. It was the first time that the human had said anything about its parents.

"My parents…are…" the thing fidgeted, but refused to say anything else.

Igneel harrumphed. "If you have a problem, go ask some other human. Don't bother me anymore," he growled at the human, making his face into a horrible sight making the thing's eyes widen in fear for the first time. "Go. Away."

And with that, Igneel lit off the ground and flew as far away from the lake as he could while still being in his forest to find something for supper. What Igneel hadn't seen was the tears that pricked the eyes of the child.

His eye's had widened in the fear that the great dragon was really going to leave him and he started to cry again. Why? Why was he leaving him? A while later, after it was apparent he was alone, he started to walk in a random direction.

He didn't know where he was going. He had never been in that forest before; he didn't remember how he got there in the first place. But he had a vague feeling that he had been somewhere else before this forest.

But where? He didn't have any memories of what had happened before he met the Great Fire Dragon Igneel. He couldn't…really remember. He struggled to find something, anything, in his memories. …what was…his name, anyways?

The boy stared into the depths of the forest, trying to find a safe spot to spend the night and he realized something. He realized that the great dragon he had met in the forest and his delicious tasting fire were the only things he knew.

He didn't say anything, just stared blankly around, then finally seeing a cave nearby. It was an unusually large cave that was surprisingly well hidden despite its size and as the boy walked in he found the whole room to be warm and comforting.

He went to the back of the cave and curled up against the stone wall, finding the warmth to be comfy enough to rock him to sleep.

* * *

><p>Igneel came back to his cave with an unsatisfied stomach. He couldn't stop thinking (begrudgingly) about that human he had found in his forest that day. What was up with that anyways?<p>

Why _his_ forest of all the woods? Why _him_ of all the dragons? And why _that_ boy of all humans? How the thing had been so unafraid of him up till nearly the very end. What a stupid human. It probably wouldn't last the night.

Igneel shook his mighty head, trying to rid himself of the thoughts of the thing. When he had been hunting for dinner he had gotten distracted a couple of times and ended up nearly letting a good buck get away unscathed. Though, of course, it was now in his stomach being digested by the huge beast.

He entered his cave and was happy again with his own relaxing scent coming from all around him. Wait…no…it's not just his scent…There was the smell of the forest in there as well.

Igneel looked to the back corner of his cave and nearly did a jaw drop. What…the hell?

The boy was nestled deep in his cave, dozing away. Igneel kind of felt like tossing the kid out, but at the same time…the unsatisfied feeling in his stomach had disappeared.

He was confused. What was this boy exactly? Why did he feel so...was there even a word to describe the confusing sensation he felt for the child? Of course there was, but he couldn't put a claw on the word exactly, what could it be that that child was? What was it to him?

He found himself wanting to scowl, but unable to make the face. Whatever the child was, he realized that he didn't want to throw him out. So, with a begrudging sigh, he curled up in his regular spot in the cave.

He heard a light sigh and looked over to the child who had smiled. In his sleep the boy had felt the warmth that he remembered from the dragon. Igneel stared at the child then, acting on instinct, gently pulled the boy towards him. The child smiled and curled up next to the heat source.

There. That was the emotion Igneel was feeling. But…why that? When had it started? When had he noticed, really? How had he started to feel…fatherly towards the child?

The second time he had told the child to eat the fire he had been worried; worried that the boy would burn himself again. Igneel frowned as he realized that he had no idea what the boy's name was.

In fact, he knew nothing about the boy. He had only spent part of the day with the child and they had only passed a few sentences between the two of them. When they first met, when Igneel informed the child of the sense of smell, when the child had gotten hungry, and when Igneel left him. That was it.

He sniffed the boy again. Yet again he smelled the forest, but now he could smell his own scent mixed in with it. It was like the child had no scent of his own, as if he wasn't really real.

But Igneel knew he was real, he had felt the child's tears on his scales, had heard his cries of pain, had seen the smile on the child's face when they first met and the fear and sadness in his eyes when they last left. This boy was real. That was certain.

It was also certain that Igneel could not simply throw the child out, not now. Not now that he realized the emotion that he felt for the young boy. He harrumphed again. Annoyed at himself and at the boy as well. Humans and dragons were not supposed to mix. And yet, here he was with a young child curled up against him, smiling in his sleep by the mere fact that he was next to the great dragon.

And, as he watched the boy smile he, for some reason, felt himself smile as well. Why? Why was this boy important? There had to be something abnormal about this boy to attract the dragon to him like that.

But what? What? Why? What did it all mean? Certainly their meeting was fate; or something like that. Igneel scowled at the darkening sky outside f his cave. What the hell did fate have in store?

* * *

><p>Alsarnia: Well, what did you guys think?<br>Lucy: Much better than your other work, that's for sure.  
>Natsu: -crying in the corner- Ah, the good old days!<br>Alsarnia: I'll take it that means I did a good job…  
>Lucy: -nods-<br>Alsarnia: so, do you guys think I should just keep this as a one shot or keep going? Because if you want me to continue it I have a few ideas of them starting to get along and Igneel teaching Natsu stuff and the thing about when Grandine told Igneel that she hopes that Natsu and Wendy will get along this time…  
>Natsu: Eh? When did that happen?<br>Alsarnia: A while after Lucy joined the guild.  
>Lucy: Eh? Why am I being dragged into this?<br>Alsarnia: -scoffs- seriously, all the adventure in Fairy Tail started when you joined, haven't you realized?  
>Natsu: Haha! I guess I need to thank you then Lucy!<br>Lucy: -still thinking about Nalu- Y-yeah, sure.  
>Alsarnia: Until next time!<br>Natsu: Oi, you need to get a bigger author's notes room so Igneel can do it with us next time.  
>Alsarnia: I'll see what I can do…<p> 


	2. It means Father

Alsarnia: Hey all!  
>Natsu: Where've you been all week?! I've been stuck in the author's box with no one but Lucy to talk to!<br>Lucy: Hey!  
>Happy: Aye!<br>Natsu: Happy! When'd you get here?  
>Alsarnia: I brought him along to make up for being gone.<br>Happy: Aye! She said I would get lots of fishes if I came in this box, but there are none…  
>Alsarnia: Sorry Happy, I'll bring you some later. Anyways, thanks to my awesome reviewers I've decided to continue this fanfic!<br>Natsu: Hooray!  
>Alsarnia: Unfortunately, I was in Nebraska all week with no computer in sight so I couldn't type anything and I couldn't find any way to put my own theories of Igneel and Natsu's time together into this chapter.<br>Lucy: Common case of writers block.  
>Alsarnia: Yup, so I wrote a page of it on paper and gave up.<br>Natsu: EH?  
>Alsarnia: And I continued to read the book Washington's Crossing about the Revolutionary War for English. I usually don't like that kind of reading at all but it was totally inspirational! I loved the way the writer brought you into the time of the Revolutionary War and you felt like you were there fighting alongside General Washington in the years of 1776 and 1777, it was absolutely fantastic and inspirational, I strongly recommend reading it even if you aren't into history kind of things.<br>Lucy: Maybe I'll pick it up on my next trip to the library!  
>Natsu: Egh, words…<br>Happy: Aye! I prefer fishes…  
>Alsarnia: So, before we start the chapter I'll have Natsu, Lucy, and Happy answer the reviews :D<br>Natsu: To Ice of the Kitsune's Fire: Thanks, Alsarnia says all your stories are really good…hey wait, I'm not cute! I'm devilishly handsome!  
>Alsarnia: -stares-…nope, you're definitely cute.<br>Lucy: To PINKHairedBADASS: Thank you for your support, and Alsarnia and I both love to read your fanfiction, it's all very good and interesting! Keep up the good work!  
>Happy: Aye! Next is to SyberSweetHeart: Thank you very much! Alsarnia is enjoying your Fairy Tail story as well and is excited for the next chapter. There aren't many stories about Natsu and Igneel because I'm not in them and everyone loves a cat!<br>Alsarnia: Aye!  
>Natsu: And finally, to Skella-the-third: Thank you for the review and we are glad you like it so far.<br>Alsarnia: Plus Skella, your English is great ;)  
>Lucy: Fairy tail © Hiro Mashima<p>

* * *

><p>Daylight streamed in through the mouth of the cave and the sun's rays warmed Igneel's scales. He woke up slowly and in as much of a good mood as he had been in a bad mood the day before. He yawned without opening his eyes, the warmth seeping into his cave giving the promise of a good day.<p>

He quirked his right eye open towards the outside of his cave to see the golden light in the small clearing before his home and the green light farther into the forest. A doe scampered by and Igneel thought that a nice breakfast would be a good idea before he headed to the lake.

But when he opened his other eye, when he was completely awake, he remembered something very important. He remembered that thing was still there. He quickly snapped his left eye, which faced inside of the cave, shut, hoping the already awake child hadn't seen it open.

He heard the boy scramble up from where he sat and tap up right next to his face. The boy hesitated, then pressed his tiny hand on the dragon's neck, having the sense not to get too close to the sharp teeth hidden under scaled lips.

He waited a moment then, when there was no response to his touch, the boy whispered, "Igneel…are you awake?"

The fire dragon couldn't help when his ear twitched at his name. The boy smiled in response and started to climb up on the dragon's back. _That_ woke the dragon up.

"Oi, oi! What do you think you're doing, human?" Igneel swung his head around to look at the boy, who was beaming at him.

"Igneel, I'm hungry," he said simply.

Igneel grumbled. "Stop talking to me so informally."

The boy blinked, and then cocked his head, still smiling. "What?"

Igneel looked at him with a look of annoyed amusement. "Never mind…how does deer sound for breakfast?"

"Yummy!" The boy said this, even though he didn't know what a deer or a breakfast was. He was just happy that Igneel didn't seem to be angry with him.

When he had woken up snuggled against the Great Fire Dragon he had been both overjoyed and worried. Happy, because he had found the dragon again and this time he seemed much more comfortable around him. But worried, because Igneel had told him to go away and never talk to him again and if the dragon remembered that then he could get punished.

But, luckily, he must've forgotten since he was getting the boy food. The boy laid down on Igneel's neck so that his (still burned) cheek was pressed against warm scales. The dragon chose to ignore it and moved out of the cave to follow the scent to where the deer had gone.

He caught up with no problems and made quick work with a burst of strong fire. The boy, still perched atop Igneel, watched with interest and slight horror when the animal died in front of him. Igneel suddenly remembered the child's presence, which had been lost in the hunt, and realized how bad it was to have killed the creature in front of the child.

This was not going to be pretty.

The boy looked at the blackened corpse, as if expecting it to leap up and bound away as it had tried to do before Igneel burned it alive. He slid off the dragons back and, using a stick, poked its charcoal.

"Igneel…how come it stopped moving?"

The dragon shuffled uncomfortably. What had he done?

The boy came closer to the animal and pressed his hand against its neck, then quickly pulled it away in fear. "It's not breathing anymore, Igneel…" He looked up to the dragon with sad eyes. "How come?"

Igneel looked at the boy's saddened and confused eyes with a mixture of worry, annoyance, and sympathy in his own. What was he supposed to say? He didn't want to make the child a vegetarian (what a pain that would be) but he couldn't just stand there and say nothing about the animal he had just killed.

"It's…ah…" He scratched at his neck. "It's…dead."

The boy looked at him in confusion. "What's 'dead'?"

Igneel scowled. "Dead is…" Then he was at a loss for words again. "Ah…dead is…" He looked around for some sort of support but saw only trees. "Dead is like a tree."

"Dead is a tree?" the boy copied, and looked down to the blackened corpse. "That doesn't look like a tree…"

"No, no, I mean, dead is _like_ a tree."

More confusion.

"You see, when a tree is planted, it's just a little seed, then it grows bigger and bigger into a tree. But eventually that tree can't grow anymore and all it's leaves fall off and it withers. That's life. You live, you grow, and you die like a tree," the Great Dragon found himself lecturing.

The boy looked up at him in exasperation. "I still don't get it."

Igneel sighed. This was becoming interesting in a way that didn't amuse him. "Dead means it's not alive. When something is alive it moves, breathes, and talks, and eats. You're alive, and I'm alive, and all the animals in this forest are alive. But that-" he pointed a talon at the dead deer, "is not alive. It can't breathe or move or talk or eat anymore. It can't feel pain or think or do anything, its spirit is gone. It was taken away."

"It's spirit…" the boy repeated, looking down at the deer. He looked back up at Igneel hopefully. "Will it come alive again?"

Oh dear…

"No. Something is only alive once. Once it dies it can't come back to life." The boy looked close to tears and Igneel hastily tried to cover it up. "But it's okay to die! Well…sometimes, it's sad when something dies, but you have to move on eventually. When a friend dies it's really sad because you won't ever see them again, but you have to go on being happy for their sake because they wouldn't want you to be sad. In this case, the deer died so that we could be happy and have food to eat. You said you were hungry, right? It's going to make you not hungry anymore. You can eat dead things like you did with my fire."

The boy's face scrunched up in deep thought. "So…it's not okay for friends to die…but it's okay…for deer to die?"

"Ah, yes, unless that deer is your friend." A thought occurred to the great dragon. "Was this one your friend?"

The boy looked down at their breakfast, as if trying to remember the creature. "No…"

"Then it's fine. We eat deer, so unless it's a friend then it's okay"

The child stared at the corpse for a while longer. "Hey, Igneel?"

"Yes?"

"How did it die?"

The dragon choked on this one. Now what was he supposed to say? But the child seemed to piece it together himself before anything was said.

"It died…after you used your fire, right?"

The dragon didn't say anything, but only watched as the boy looked back at the deer and started to nod slowly. "But…it's okay, because it wasn't our friend at all…because it's our breakfast…right?" He looked up at Igneel hopefully and the dragon could only nod.

The boy smiled at his achievement and sat down next to the deer. "Thank you Mr. Deer for letting us eat you for breakfast."

"…it's a Mrs. Deer…kid," Igneel corrected.

The child looked up at him in quick understanding then back at the deer. "Sorry, I mean, _Mrs._ Deer."

Igneel sighed. This kid knew _nothing_. What had his parents been teaching him up till then? Regardless, Igneel carved up the deer, cooking it more thoroughly as he did so, and gave the child a portion for breakfast.

Thankfully, the boy had no problems with eating Mrs. Deer and Igneel had avoided an otherwise massive problem of having to go foraging for the child. When he was done with his portion Igneel ate the rest, bones and all. The boy watched in awe as he downed the thing and clapped when he swallowed.

Although this was a normal everyday thing, eating a deer whole, he felt very prideful when the boy clapped his approval. The child looked at him curiously all of a sudden.

"Hey, Igneel, what are we doing today?" This time the dragon had no protests when the boy climbed up on his back.

"We're going to try looking for your parents again."

"Oh…"

The dragon looked back at him. "Do you not want to go home?"

"Well…I don't know what home is…and yesterday…you said I should find my parents and leave you, but I don't want you to go!"

Igneel considered this for a moment. Indeed, he had grown accustomed to the child's presence already and greatly appreciated it, but he couldn't just keep the boy. For one thing his parents were probably worried about him and looking all over for him, if they found out a _dragon_ had been taking care of their boy (and even teaching him what _death_ meant) well…he could only imagine what would happen.

And also, if the Dragon Council found out that he was harboring a human child…he shivered slightly (which the boy noticed and cocked his head to) he didn't even _want_ to imagine what could happen. So he sighed, knowing that, even if he _did_ like the boy, he would eventually have to give him up.

"I won't leave until we find your parents, deal?"

The child seemed to consider this for a moment, then nodded his head. "Deal."

"Good, now let's backtrack." The Great Dragon went back to his cave and, from there, started trekking through the woods, trying to remember his exact steps from the day before, which was harder than you would think considering he took a different path everyday. Eventually, he found the spot where he had first seen the child peeking out of the bushes and where his fate decided to take a nasty turn.

"Alright, now, see if you can find the place where you came from."

The boy bounced off of the dragon's neck and went to the bushes that he had been in when he spotted the dragon the day before. He looked up in question, not knowing what to do next.

Igneel sighed. "Retrace your steps, where were you before you were in these bushes?"

The boy looked hesitantly into the forest and took a few steps into the brush. "Here."

"And before that?"

He took a few more steps into the trees. "Here."

Igneel sighed again. "Just keep doing that until you can't remember where you were before then."

The child looked up at him for a moment to see if he had anything to add, but, when it was apparent he didn't, he started to baby step his way through the undergrowth. He muttered a few things to himself as he concentrated on where he had come from the day before and cutely stuck out his tongue.

After a minute or so of walking, the boy stopped in front of a large tree. Igneel looked down at the child boredly, then back the way they had come. They hadn't gone far at all and he could still easily see the bushes where they had started out.

"Oi, kid, where were you before this?"

The child didn't answer.

"Kid?" Igneel looked down to see the child's face contorted in worry and anguish. "O-oi, what's wrong?"

"I…can't remember anything."

"Eh?"

The child shook his head. "I don't remember…where I came from before this."

As the boy searched desperately in his mind for some other memory before being in that spot, Igneel scanned the vicinity, hoping to find some clue as to why the child couldn't remember anything. He didn't notice anything that really stood out, however, the bushes that the child was standing just before that, huddled closely around the tree's roots, looked kind of suspicious.

He leaned over the boy and, with a talon, moved the leaves around to look inside of the crevasses of the weed. What he found was interesting. A bunch of egg shells. Certainly much bigger than that of any bird egg that he had ever seen, and all in a crumpled heap, as if whatever had hatched from it had squirmed around and broken it up quite a bit before leaving it in the bushes. He found a bit of a larger piece and flipped it over so that he could see the outside of the egg shell.

If dragons could pale he would've done it. On the outside of the shell there was a deep red design that curved slightly on the piece he held.

_No way in hell._

He looked over at the boy, who was still trying, in vain, to remember something and noted the child's deep-pink hair color again. He looked back down to the color on the egg. Then to the color of his scales which was the exact same color as the egg's patterns. He flipped a couple of other chunks of shell around to look at the color and confirmed it.

_No flipping way in hell._

These hadn't been seen in years-no-centuries. There hadn't been this kind of egg in a thousand years! Why? No one could really figure out why, just that, for some reason, the dragons suddenly weren't able to lay any eggs.

So why _in hell_ were there remnants of a dragon egg lying in the middle of his forest, right in the spot where the child he had mysteriously found said he couldn't remember anything else of his life. Because his life had _started_ at that spot.

Igneel couldn't help but gawp at the child. Because he was certainly _not_ a dragon. He was human! He looked human and spoke like a human and…Oh no, what was all this?!

When a dragon laid an egg they were immediately supposed to leave the egg wherever they had laid it. It was a rule created by the dragon council so that there wouldn't be any mass produced single type of dragon, like a thunder dragon who had been rumored to have laid 10 eggs in a single year.

When a dragon egg was laid the dragon inside did not have any sort of power and its type was not specified. It was an Unclassified Egg. When, either by chance or by searching for one, another dragon came close to an Unclassified Egg the egg would draw on that dragon's inner energy and would copy it, making another dragon of that type. Then, once this had happened, the egg hatched and the baby dragon could unite with its legitimate parent.

Great. So…Igneel was officially a father.

Just great. Honestly, whoever thought that putting a child in his custody, whether it be another dragon who was stalking him for some sort of revenge or God himself, they're an idiot.

He looked over to the child, who was now watching a butterfly in curiosity. He was a father. Of _that_ little thing that was supposed to be a dragon. Of course, it made sense why it hadn't hatched before then. As he had thought to himself before, he took a different path to the lake every single day. He would get up, find breakfast in his surprisingly large forest, and walk to the lake from that point.

The day before, when he had been annoyed out of his mind, he had, much to his ire, had to trek almost all the way across his forest before finding something decent to eat, then proceeded to the lake from there. It was no wonder why he hadn't come into contact with the egg before, due to the size of the forest he was in.

Even so…he looked back to the boy, who had somehow caught the butterfly and was now studying it. He grumbled. Congratulations…he was a father. In a weird, distorted sort of way that he had no approval of what so ever. He growled, wondering what he should do.

By now it was certainly best to kill it. There was no way the Dragon Council could ever figure out that he had ever even met the child since there had been no hatchlings for a thousand years, and if he didn't then he'd have to…_raise_ it. A shiver went down his spine.

He was no papa to anyone or anything. _Certainly_ not this child who was now- "Hey! Don't eat that!"

The boy spat the butterfly back out, that wobbled in midair for a moment before lazily fluttering off to some other part of the forest. On second thought, maybe it would just end up killing itself.

The boy smiled at him innocently, as if he _hadn't_ just tried to eat a butterfly, which could have very well been poisonous for all Igneel knew. Dear lord, what was he going to do? He stared at the child, lowering his eyes to the boy's level and looking into his dark black eyes.

The boy blinked, then smiled again, looking back into the dragon's dark red eyes. Well, at least he didn't have to go looking around for the child's parents anymore. He sighed. Well, he might as well go along with it, since he couldn't really get out of fatherhood.

First thing was first. If he _was _going to raise the kid he couldn't keep calling it kid.

"Alright, let's give you a name."

"A name?" the child questioned, all thoughts of finding where he came from gone in his mind, then suddenly got very excited. "You mean my name?"

"Yes, I'm going to give you a name."

"Can I be called Igneel?"

"No."

"Awwww."

He looked the child over, wondering what could be a good name for the little boy. Well…he had pink hair so maybe…Sakura? Like the pink cherry blossom petals in the spring? No. He wouldn't give the kid a girly name to go with his hair. But his hair color was a very prominent feature on him.

A warm, salmon color. Warm…perhaps like a baby fire, not quite flaming red hot, like the red of his scales, but a tiny color, a spark. Perhaps he could go with something simple like…Ryu. Simple, Ryu meaning dragon, of which (though Igneel was still doubtful) he was supposed to be. No, that was a little too manly for this child and not thought out enough, plus he didn't want for him to have too many expectations (Dear lord he already sounded like a father daunting on his son).

But warm definitely suited him. He was warm and energetic, happy and filled with endless smiles. Like a warm summer day. Ah yes, Natsu. Summer. He looked down at the boy, who smiled his sunny smile back up at him. Yes, it fit him perfectly.

"Alright then. From this day forth, your name shall be Natsu," Igneel deemed.

Natsu blinked for a moment, considering the name, then smiled wider than ever. "Natsu…" he tested, then beamed. "I'm Natsu! I like it! Natsu and Igneel, right?"

Igneel, felt a smile twitch at his lips. "Yeah, Natsu and Igneel." Natsu skipped around a bit, chanting his and the dragon's names and smiling like his name's sake.

Igneel chuckled at the child's antics, but eventually poked him to grab the child's attention. "Let's go to the lake now and relax for a while, alright?"

Natsu nodded happily and climbed back up onto the dragon's neck, the dragon not so much minding it anymore. Igneel checked the sun to see it already past midday. At this rate if he was to walk then it would be time to hunt by the time they got back to the lake.

He paused a moment, then looked back at Natsu. "Listen, I'm going to fly now, okay? So hold on tight."

The little boy nodded vigorously and clung onto the dragon's scales. Igneel unfolded his wings and lit off into the air. He heard Natsu squeal for a moment as they rose in the air and he couldn't help as a smile came over him at the boy's excitement.

When they were gliding forward in the air, straight towards the lake, Igneel stole a glance back at the young child. Natsu was grinning madly at the wind whipping his face and at the altitude they were at, peeking down at the trees every once and a while and growing more excited with every beat of the dragon's wings.

Igneel had an idea and smiled. "Hold on tight, Natsu." He felt the little boy comply and leaned backward.

The boy squeaked as, suddenly, he was facing the sky, then he was upside down, then they were hurtling back towards the ground. Natsu clung to the dragon in fear and tightly shut his eyes, waiting for an impact that never came. When he opened his eyes again Igneel was laughing at him.

"You were scared!" he jeered.

Natsu pouted. "I was not!"

Laughter died down to chuckles and the dragon smiled at him. "You don't have to worry. I won't let you fall."

This reassured the boy immensely and his grip loosened slightly to a more comfortable position. Igneel gracefully glided down to the lake, skidding across it for a moment before lighting on the opposite bank.

"You're incredible, Igneel!" Natsu praised.

Igneel puffed up in pride_. I know_.

Natsu immediately jumped into the water and started splashing water onto his scabbed-up face, sighing with relief from the cold water. Igneel couldn't help but feel that the burns were his fault.

"Does it still hurt, Natsu?"

The boy shook his head, much to the dragon's relief. "It just feels good on my face."

A flick of water towards the middle of the lake caught the boy's attention and his head whipped around to look for the disturbance on the lake. "What was that?!"

Igneel looked at him with amusement. "It was a fish."

"A fish?"

"They're the animals that live in the lake."

"Ohhhh, I see…" The boy waited for another chance to see this fish and stared out at the lake.

"Tell you what, Natsu, if you can catch a fish I'll cook it and you can have it for dinner tonight. How's that sound?"

The boy looked at Igneel happily. "Really? Does fish taste good?"

"Yes, very good."

He thought a moment longer. "Does that mean…it has to die?"

Igneel paused, then nodded.

Natsu smiled, understanding. "Alright!" Then dove into the water.

Igneel waited a moment. Then remembered that the boy probably didn't know how to swim. Sure enough, a second later the child came up sputtering water and flailing around, scaring all his precious fish away. With a sigh, Igneel pulled him out before he could kill himself.

"That's dangerous!" Natsu said.

Igneel scoffed slightly, though he found it entertaining. "Well obviously, if you don't know how to swim you're going to drown."

Natsu looked out to the water in disappointment. "But how am I going to catch a fish now?"

"You're going to have to learn to swim."

Natsu looked up at him in excitement. "Swim?"

"Yes, swim. It's like walking…but in the water…no, it's more like flying, but in the water, and you have to hold your breath."

"Hold my breath? Like this?" He puffed up his cheeks as he inhaled and held it for a while. After 5 minutes had passed and the child had yet to turn blue, Igneel got a bit worried.

"Natsu?"

The child breathed out.

"Were you breathing through your nose?"

"No…?" Oh, right. He had forgotten for a moment that he was a dragon.

Igneel could easily hold his breath for a full hour, but he was a full grown, 3,000 year old dragon (give or take a few years) and Natsu was hardly a few days old. Still…

Now that he thought about it, if Natsu _had_ been a human he would've been killed the day before when Igneel had tried to make him eat fire…who the hell thought it was a good idea to make him a father?!

"Like this?" Natsu called from the water as he tried flapping his arms.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm flying in the water, like you told me!"

Igneel sighed. "You don't fly in the water, you swim."

Natsu stared at the water. The Great Fire Dragon sighed and got into the water to help the child along.

"Try and do what I'm doing," he growled. With puffed up cheeks, Igneel tried to mimic the movements of a human swimming and Natsu copied him.

"Like this?" The boy asked, correctly swimming now.

"Yes, very good. Keep working on that," Igneel said, getting out of the water.

"You're not going to keep swimming?" Natsu asked, clearly disappointed.

"No, you can though. I'm going to relax for a while. I'll watch you though; how's that sound?"

Natsu smiled. "Okay!"

Igneel lay down on the grass by the lakeside and watched as the young boy swam around and tried new ways to stay afloat. But, eventually, he got bored of swimming.

"Hey, Igneel?" he asked, standing next to the dragon.

"Hmm? What is it? Are you tired of swimming?"

Natsu nodded. "Can you teach me something else?"

This surprised him. "Teach you…?"

He nodded again. "I liked it when Igneel taught me how to swim. I want you to teach me something else!"

Igneel smiled, then sighed in defeat. "Alright. How about I teach you some letters and words?"

Natsu sparkled in excitement. "What are letters?"

Igneel drew an 'A' in the dirt with one of his claws. "Every word that we speak is made up of letters, you see? And each letter makes a different sound, and when you put those letters together their sounds combine and make a word, understand?"

Natsu nodded, paying close attention.

"Good, this that I just drew is called an 'A' and makes an ah sound."

"Ah," the boy repeated, and drew a shaky A in the dirt next to Igneel's.

"Right, this letter makes an ah, like in N-ah-tsu."

"I see! So I have a 'A' in my name?"

Igneel nodded. "That's right, but this letter is special."

Natsu cocked his head to the side. "Special?"

"Yup. This letter can make more than one sound, it can make an 'ah' sound, but it can also make an 'a' sound or a 'ahh" sound."

Natsu scratched his head. "That's confusing…"

Igneel laughed at the child. "That's fine, it takes practice to get it right, like swimming, that's what teaching is for."

The child smiled up at Igneel. "So that means that Igneel will help me practice, right?"

Igneel hesitated for a moment, then gave up and smiled. "Yes, that's right. Now this…is an 'N' and this is a 'T' and this is a 'S' and a 'U'" He drew each letter side by side.

Natsu repeated each name Igneel gave the letters as he pointed to each of them.

"Good, now try and say them together."

"N-A-T-S-U"

"Try it like this; nn-ah-tt-ss-uo."

"Nnah—tsuo…Nah-tsu…Natsu! That's me!"

Igneel chuckled. "That's right, all these letters, when they're next to each other, spell the word Natsu."

"Ah! That's great! Hey, how do you spell Igneel?"

Igneel wrote out his name and Natsu looked at the letters in focus.

"I only know this one," he said as he pointed to the 'N'.

"That's because they're different letters that make the sounds for my name. 'I', 'G', 'N', 'E', 'E', 'L'. Ii-guh-nn—eee-ll."

"Iguh-neeel…Igneel!"

"Right."

"But why are there two of the 'E's?"

"Because if it was just one 'E' then it would be Ignel. 'E' is another special letter that makes different sounds."

Natsu pulled at his hair in frustration. "Letters are hard!"

Igneel laughed. "I'll help you, how does that sound?"

He brightened at that. "Yeah!"

Igneel helped Natsu through the entire alphabet, writing out the letters and having him copy them in the dirt; he even taught the child some of the letters used in the dragon alphabet. Natsu didn't pick any of it up very easily and it was almost time to go hunting for dinner by the time he could correctly get up to 'G' in the alphabet song.

""A' 'B' 'C' 'D' 'E' 'G'—"

"You forgot 'F' again."

"Darn it! What's so important about the letter 'F' anyways? It's not a special letter!"

"Well," Igneel started, leaning back in thought, "The letter 'F' makes a lot of important words and without it we wouldn't be able to use those words."

Natsu huffed. "Like what?"

"Well, there's frog," he wrote it out, accenting the 'F' at the beginning, "friend, face, family—"

"What's that one?" Natsu pointed to the word that he had been writing out, his claws getting ahead of his words.

"Hmm? That one? That's…father."

"What's a father?" the boy asked innocently, looking up at the dragon with big dark eyes.

"Well…a father is…" he sighed in defeat, then leaned down and poked Natsu in the tummy with his snout. "I'm your father, see?"

Natsu giggled, then put a hand on Igneel's nose. "You're my father? What's that mean?"

"It means that I'll always be there for you, no matter what. To protect you, to feed you, to teach you, because you're…you're my son, see?"

Natsu smiled brightly and laughed, hugging his father's snout tightly. "You're my father!"

Igneel laughed with him, he wasn't sure why, but the child's happiness seemed to make him happy as well, and when he started laughing he couldn't stop. "That's right! I'm your _father_."

Whoever the idiot was that had thought it was a good idea to make him a father…he had to thank him.

* * *

><p>Alsarnia: And once again, another chapter is up!<br>Lucy: WTF?! Natsu's a freakin' dragon?  
>Natsu: WOOHOO! Imma dragon!<br>Alsarnia: Well, that's only _my_ theory on the whole dragon slayer thing.  
>Natsu: So…I'm…not a dragon…?<br>Alsarnia: Well, innocent until proven guilty and all that so until we have concrete evidence that you are we can't really say, now can we?  
>Lucy: Although, I have questions…like why did Macao turn into a lizard when he was impersonating you? And why did everyone believe it?<br>Alsarnia: Well, after the frog from the council turning up I guess no one thought to question Natsu's lizardness…  
>Natsu: Wait, am I a dragon, or a lizard?<br>Happy: You're a salamander! And I'm a Neko-mander!  
>Natsu: Ah! I see! You're a genius Happy!<br>Lucy: -puts hand on Natsu's shoulder- you had a wonderful life as a child, I envy you.  
>Natsu: …I don't know what you mean exactly…but okay.<br>Alsarnia: . so, any flames, constructive criticism, or praises? Give me anything you've got! I want to know what to do with this from you the reader since I don't trust my judgment at all.  
>Natsu: You can ask me!<br>Alsarnia: I trust you less I think…


	3. Flames of a Bond

Alsarnia: -in tears-  
>Lucy: Oh no! What's wrong? Did something happen?<br>Alsarnia: Yes…something happened…  
>Natsu: I know! Gray made fun of you, don't worry I'll go beat him up for you.<br>Happy: You just want an excuse to beat up Gray huh?  
>Natsu: Nothing wrong with that.<br>Lucy: Natsu, sit!  
>Natsu: -grumbles but obeys-<br>Lucy: …I didn't think that'd work…  
>Alsarnia: Back to my problem…<br>Lucy: Oh yeah! What's wrong?  
>Alsarnia: It's not what's wrong! It's what's right! These are tears of joy!<br>Everyone: -sweatdrops-  
>Alsarnia: Seriously, my readers made me sooooooo happy! It hasn't been a week since I posted my second chapter of Father and I have a ton of reviews and story favs and watches; that makes me happy beyond belief you guys! So much so that I'm crying tears of joy!<br>Natsu: So does that mean…I…can't go beat up Gray?  
>Alsarnia: No. You're staying in the Author's Notes box.<br>Natsu: Darn it…  
>Alsarnia: Ugh, but school's coming up soon…which means I'll be updating more often surprisingly…I like to procrastinate a lot (Don't do it kids! It bites you in the butt later!) So during my free time I write as much as I can, so it basically means that as long as I have time on my laptop that I'll be doing a lot of writing.<br>Lucy: Alsarnia! Don't procrastinate!  
>Natsu: What's a Po-crab-tea-crate?<br>Happy: It's a crate that's filled with tea for crabs!  
>Natsu: Oh I see! You're so smart Happy!<br>Happy: Aye!  
>Lucy: Baka…<br>Alsarnia: Ok, now onto answering all of my lovely reviews that I got from my amazing readers! Lucy, why don't you start us off this time?  
>Lucy: Alright! To Felixdark: we plan on continuing! Alsarnia and I have been coming up with a lot of ideas for future chapters and its fun! That's an interesting theory; I haven't heard that one yet…maybe that's why Igneel's not in the author's notes!<br>Alsarnia: Lucy's such a big help! That's an entirely possible explanation cannon wise so far!  
>Natsu: My turn! To PINKhairedBADASS: DSJP #$^&amp;$# I'M NOT CUTE I'M DEVILISHLY HANDSOME!<br>Alsarnia: Natsu, we've gone over this, you're adorable, get on with the reply.  
>Natsu: -grumbles- …Well, heheh, who doesn't love me? I mean, I <em>am<em> awesome. Hey! You're a pink haired badass too, we can be buddies!  
>Alsarnia: We're getting off track again…<br>Happy: Aye! To Cileo: Natsu had pants when he was born because he hatched from an egg!  
>Alsarnia: You hatched from an egg and didn't have pants.<br>Happy: That's because I'm a cat.  
>Alsarnia: I see…<br>Happy: Heehee, Natsu must've spent a lot of time in the egg, which makes him an old man! Older than Jii-chan! Thanks, I can remember everything from when I hatched because I'm a cat.  
>Lucy: But, Natsu's a dragon…<br>Happy: That too.  
>Alsarnia: Off track again…<br>Lucy: To AquaMiyuki: You're right, there aren't many dragon slayer stories out there, most of them are about me, -smiles proudly- of course. Who wouldn't want to write about me?  
>Alsarnia: Usually the only stories that Natsu comes up in are romance ones with Lucy, Gray, or Erza there aren't many actiony stories focusing around him…<br>Happy: Natsu…romance…Lucy, Gray, and Erza….WHAT? When did this happen?!  
>Lucy: Two chapters ago.<br>Natsu: Can we get on with it? To Skella-the-third: Haha! See? I am a real dragon, nothing less can be awesome enough for me!  
>Happy: To Zero Sakura: I'm cuter!<br>Alsarnia: I dunno. Natsu was pretty damn adorable when he was little.  
>Lucy: And finally, to Crestfallenfeline: We're glad that you like it, even if it was just a coincidence that you read it.<br>Alsarnia: What?! I was funny? Great! I can't seem to do that very well  
>Lucy: Right…we hope you enjoy this chapter then!<br>Alsarnia: Long Authors note is long…sorry everyone, didn't mean for it to be. :P I'll make the story really long too, how's that?! :D This one is kinda more focused around Natsu learning dragon slayer magic and more teaching from Igneel.  
>Lucy: Fairy tail © Hiro Mashima<br>Alsarnia: Obviously. If I don't own the moon then that means I don't own Fairy Tail  
>Happy: …that makes no sense…<p>

* * *

><p>"Hey, Igneel?" Natsu asked, looking up from the burning log he had as a lunch in front of him.<p>

"Hmm? What is it Natsu? I thought you liked Elm wood…"

"No, I do, I do, I love your fire. It always tastes so good…" Natsu seemed to become lost for a minute, thinking deeply about the delicious taste as he slowly ate the fire.

"Natsu, what was it that you wanted to ask me?" Igneel asked after a minute, curiosity getting the better of him.

"Oh! That's right!" The little boy looked up at the dragon with a strong determination that made the dragon smile slightly in amusement. "I want you to teach me how to make fire like you do!"

It had been around 10 days since Igneel had found Natsu and realized that he was in charge of the little boy and he had been enjoying the time they spent together. He had decided that it wouldn't hurt if they stayed in those woods for another month since he still had not seen any humans too close to him or his cave and he didn't become annoyed with the too familiar surroundings any more. Having a little kid around you everywhere you go made everything seem different, it seemed.

Plus, Natsu was still very young and he had no idea how the child would react to having to move so suddenly, but he couldn't take any chances and let the child become too attached to the woods; so he planned on them moving on again at the end of the month.

Up until then they had had peaceful days, having whatever was close by to the cave for breakfast, then heading to the lake where Igneel would teach Natsu about letters and words and Natsu would practice swimming until it was time for dinner and Natsu would hop on the dragons back and they would go hunting together for dinner.

The little boy had eventually come to terms with the concept of death and didn't bat an eye when Igneel mercilessly roasted other animals now. The dragon couldn't help but worry that that would become an issue at some point and thought that maybe he shouldn't take the child hunting anymore…Especially since what the child was talking about now.

Of course he had used his fire plenty of times in front of the child, killing the prey meant for their meals, lighting logs and sticks on fire for the boy to snack on, and even just as little tricks to show the child and keep him entertained. He was no longer timid about the fire that had once burned him and instead seemed drawn towards it.

This only made sense of course. Natsu _was_ destined to be a fire dragon at some point and it now made sense as to why he was burned so badly from the short amount of contact he had had with the flames that first day as being a new born with easily damaged skin and a fragile body.

However, Igneel could tell that the child was becoming stronger every day, even by just a little. He was small but he was already quite strong for his size and how young he was. Igneel couldn't help but feel proud whenever Natsu showed him how fast he could swim or stayed underwater for nearly half an hour holding his breath in feats he considered absolutely incredible for such a human like creature.

And now, Natsu wanted to learn how to use fire like he was destined to. However, Igneel had no idea where to start.

"Well, that's fine Natsu. It's good you want to learn how to use the fire, however…" The truth was, Igneel had no idea how to teach Natsu that kind of thing, let alone he couldn't remember how he had learned it himself. Cut the guy some slack, he was around 3000 years old and you expect him to remember when he was a hatchling?

Which easily explained why he hadn't remembered anything about dragons taking the forms of humans when they were just hatchlings or exactly _when_ the child would turn more dragon-like in form. Maybe he would start growing little pink scales soon? Or perhaps he would develop horns first?

And what about his tail and wings? When would those come in? He had certainly been enjoying it whenever Igneel took him on a short flight and Igneel was actually _eager_ to be able to teach the child how to fly.

Maybe it would all come in at the same time when he hit puberty? …when did a dragon hit puberty anyways? He honestly had no idea. He looked down at Natsu again, who had finished off his fiery lunch while Igneel was contemplating how exactly he was going to teach the child dragon magic.

Well…first thing was first, and the best offense was a good defense, and a bunch of other sayings that Igneel wanted to burn.

"Alright, I'll teach you how to use fire," he said to the young boy, who looked up at him with glee. "To have the scales of a fire dragon, that which melts flames themselves. To have the lungs of a fire dragon, that which breathes flames like air. To have the claws of a fire dragon, that which dresses themselves with flames. That is the dragon magic that will allow you to make your own flames and use them as a dragon does."

Natsu was giddy with excitement. "Ohh, Ohh! Am I gonna learn to breathe fire first?"

Igneel laughed at his charge's willingness to get straight to it. "No, we'll start with the scales of a dragon."

Natsu thought a moment, his face scrunched up in thought. "To…melt flames?" he asked, recalling the dragon's words.

Igneel smiled. "Something of the like. Once you have the scales of a fire dragon then no fire can harm you, you won't ever be burned by flames because they are neither hot enough nor strong enough to penetrate your scales. A dragon's scales are its number one defense. You see, flames don't affect a fire dragon at all."

For a demonstration Igneel blew a stream of fire on his tail. His scales eagerly sucked in the warmth, but did not pucker like other dragon's scales would, instead they seemed to glow a coppery golden color with the heat and reddened a deeper burgundy color. When the flames died down Natsu watched carefully as the dragon's scales slowly cooled to their normal color.

Natsu thought for a moment. "So I'll have scales?"

"Well…I'm not exactly sure about that…I don't think you'll have actual _scales_, per say, but more like your skin will act like my scales do."

Natsu accepted this easily and pointed to the pink bush on his head. "What about my hair?"

"Well…I would suspect that it wouldn't burn…" though he had no hair speak of and couldn't really make this assurance. "You shouldn't get too attached to your hair anyways…" Great.

"Hey Igneel, before you start teaching me, can I ask a question?"

"What is it, Natsu?"

"Where did you learn how to use dragon magic?"

"Well…" Igneel didn't remember that either, "I suppose that my father taught it to me."

Natsu nodded slowly, seemingly deep in thought as he stared hard at his 'father' and then down at his own fleshy hands. But he said nothing.

"Do you want to start learning how to use the dragon scales now?"

Natsu was easily broken out of his thoughts. "Yes!"

"Well then, come here and sit down," Igneel said, directing the boy to a bit of clearing. The child obediently sat down where the dragon pointed to.

He waited, watching as Igneel tore down branches like twigs from trees and surrounded Natsu with them in the shape of a ring. Igneel thought for a moment, wondering if his form of training was going to do anything at all or just make a ridiculous sauna for the boy. Oh well, too late to turn back now.

"Alright, you ready?"

Natsu nodded enthusiastically.

Igneel lit all the branches on fire, making a ring of flames around the child, whose eyes widened at being surrounded so suddenly. He watched the flickering fire for a minute, before looking past the wall to where Igneel was.

"What do I do now?"

"I want you to try and feel the flames. Feel their heat soak into your skin, feel how they move and sway, feel their heat, anger, passion, joy. Fire is made up of burning emotions. I don't want you to fight the heat; I want you to soak it in. Fire dragons don't fight the fire, they feel the fire."

Natsu closed his eyes and unconsciously began to match his breathing to Igneel's once again. He paid close attention to the heat that surrounded him and the warmth that his skin greedily soaked up. The flames flicked comfortably towards the boy, as if feeling the dragon magic within him.

But when a lick of flames tried to lap at the child's skin he shied away slightly. Igneel, previously proud of how well his son was doing, scowled.

"Don't fight against the flames, Natsu, welcome them. Flames have emotions as well and if you push them away then they grow angry."

Natsu stared at the flames for a bit, becoming lost in their warm colors. "Welcome the flames…" His eyes narrowed in determination as he stood up and walked to the fire that had previously reached out to him.

When Igneel saw this he could only remember the burned and puckered face that he had seen the first day he had found the child. "O-oi! Natsu, what do you think you're doing?"

He paused, just before the flames, and smiled up at Igneel. "I'm welcoming the flames!" And with that he jumped into the fire.

When the little boy let out an ear splitting scream and writhed in the fire Igneel panicked and could only think 'Oh dear God I killed him!' But as he frantically tried to put the flames out (He _made_ fire, he didn't put it out!) the screams turned to hysterical laughter.

Igneel paused his firefighting, looking into the flames to the black figure bent over with laughter. "Nat…su?"

The little boy walked out of the flames smiling widely. "Heehee, I'm okay! I was just kidding!"

But instead of the laughter the boy had expected from the dragon, the great creature was livid. The boy's smile disappeared instantly.

"Natsu…" Igneel said in the angriest voice he had ever heard, "Don't you _ever_ do that _again_."

Natsu's happiness and joking glint disappeared all in an instant. He shook slightly as little tears pricked the corners of his eyes. "I-I'm sorry, Igneel. I thought that you'd think it was funny. I didn't know…–hic-"

Then all hell broke loose.

As the child's cries reverberated through the woods and across the lake Igneel could feel himself panic again. What was with that? _He_ should be the one making a fuss, not trying to calm the little boy down. But as the big tears kept pouring down the child's face he felt himself become less and less angry and more and more worried for the child. He was also feeling irritated at himself for bursting out at the boy like that.

After all, Natsu had thought that the dragon would think it was funny and hadn't tried to worry the great beast. Igneel pulled Natsu to him so that the child was crying over him as he had before and the boy cried like that for a while before Igneel tried to comfort him.

"Now, now, Natsu, calm down, you're alright. I'm sorry I got mad at you, I was just worried about you."

Natsu sniffled. "You were -hic- worried -sniff- about me?"

"That's right," Igneel said gently, "When you were yelling like that I was scared that you were hurt. Remember what I had told you before? About what a father does?"

Natsu thought a moment.

"Fathers protect their families. And when I thought you were hurt then I was doing my job wrong."

Natsu sniffled a bit more.

"So, I'm sorry I got mad at you."

"I-I'm sorry I s-scared you, Igneel."

The dragon smiled. "See? All better now, right?"

Natsu nodded and rubbed his tears away.

Igneel beamed. "Now, might I say, those were some fantastic fire scales you used."

Natsu brightened. "Really?"

"That's right. Even your hair didn't burn."

The boy felt his hair, Igneel laughed, all previous woes gone from the atmosphere. The sun was happily shining once more and the lake was giddily lapping at the shores again.

"Hey Natsu, how about you show me your swimming again?"

"Will you swim with me?"

Igneel hesitated for only a moment before warmly smiling. "Sure."

* * *

><p>"Bum bum."<p>

Natsu looked around in panic, treading water and flicking the water from his pink hair back into the lake.

"_Bum bum_."

"Eeek!" he started to swim towards the shore.

"_Bumbumbumbumbumbumbumbumbum_…"

Just before he made it to shallow water he felt something grab his foot and drag him back towards the lake and out of the water.

"Hiiieeeeekk!"

Igneel laughed as Natsu giggled and dripped from Igneel's tail.

"You got me _again_!" he laughed.

"I sure did!" Igneel found himself laughing so hard that his tail slipped and Natsu plopped back into the water, only to resurface and laugh some more.

Igneel had to admit: he hadn't had this much fun for at least a thousand years, what with hiding from the humans and all the uptight dragons. He hadn't been able to laugh. And for a moment he thanked Natsu, because if the boy had not come along he felt like he would've turned into one of those uptight dragons as well. Or maybe he already had been one of them. Somehow Natsu's young and cheerful personality seemed to have brought him back to life.

Igneel smiled then splashed the little boy, who attempted to do the same. He paused a moment, then dove under the water. It took a while for him to come back up, but when he did he had a huge fish in his hands.

"Look, Igneel! Look! I caught it! I caught the fish I said I would! We can eat it now, right?"

Igneel laughed, he had no idea that Natsu would even remember that. "Looks like we're having fish for supper!"

The boy smiled proudly at the fish, seeing it as another great achievement. They spent the rest of the day gathering a pile of fish for dinner that night then brought them back to the cave to cook. As Natsu was eating the fish he had caught himself, Igneel couldn't help but think how smart the child was and how quickly he grew.

He was already learning dragon magic and had caught his own dinner. Even if he didn't look like a dragon, Igneel recognized the boy as his legitimate son.

And as if he could read minds, when Natsu was done with his fish he looked up at the dragon and asked, "Igneel? What did your father look like?"

"Well, he was a dragon, just like me, although his scales were a brighter red than mine. They looked more like blood."

Natsu considered this for a moment. "Then…how come I don't look like you?"

Igneel choked on the fish he was about to swallow. "What? What do you mean by that?"

"Well, you have scales, and horns, and wings, and a tail, and are big, and strong, and red, and—"

"Yes, yes, I know that. But what do you mean: why don't you look like me?"

"Well, you say that you look like your father, so if you're _my_ father then how come I don't look like you?"

Silence stretched between them for a while in which Natsu patiently waited for an answer from his dad.

Igneel cleared his throat. "Well, that's because I'm a dragon and you're…" he paused, then, "And you have the body of a human."

Natsu looked crestfallen.

"However," Igneel continued, "You have the heart of a dragon, and that's all that I need for you to be my son."

The little boy cheered up instantly and Igneel smiled. What he said was true: Natsu did have the body of a human for reasons he could not fathom, but he had most certainly come out of an egg only 10 days ago, which was meant for a dragon, and had easily used the scales of a fire dragon even if he had no actual scales on his body. Dragon magic was a magic that was impossible for actual humans to learn unless under special circumstances, so there was no doubting that Natsu was indeed a dragon.

Truly, Natsu's existence confused Igneel. But he didn't care. As long as Natsu existed at all, Igneel was happy to have him.

However, Natsu really was a mystery. Why was there a dragon egg all of a sudden; certainly there had been other dragons that had passed by this area before him, so why had the egg not reacted before? How long had his egg been there? Had it been lying in wait for the past thousand years and no one noticed it? Or perhaps it was laid not a month ago and he didn't notice.

Who was the one who had laid the egg? If it were recent (As in the past 500 years) then they would've reported it to the dragon council since it was still a mystery to the older dragons as well.

In that case, why hadn't there been any hatchlings in the past years? Had there been something preventing them from hatching or being laid? There must have been since all the female dragons hadn't been laying eggs for years. No one knew why, perhaps a curse?

And in that case, why hadn't it affected Natsu?

Natsu finished the big fish and started on another one. Igneel chuckled. He knew dragons had a large appetite and it looked like Natsu was starting to learn this as well.

He had already decided that he would not tell the council of Natsu's existence; if they knew then Natsu would certainly be taken away from Igneel and brought to the mountains where the elder dragons resided. Or, if he was found by one of the dragons who still resented the humans back from the war, there might not even be a body left for him to bury.

But if they found out he was a dragon he would be studied and raised in the way that the council wanted him to be. He wouldn't have any freedom under those old farts and Igneel would probably never see the child ever again.

He couldn't let that happen; especially not now that the boy had started to loosen his tight and sore heart again with that bright smile he always carried around. Igneel wouldn't be able to bear it if Natsu was hurt in any way. But he still had questions, and important ones too, that needed to be answered.

For example: why was he shaped like a bloody human? It bothered him a lot. He couldn't just hand Natsu over to the humans just because he looked like one either. A young dragon who had no control over his strength, appetite, or magic would be extremely dangerous, he would think.

Even if mages were to raise the boy they would be baffled and unprepared for his dragon magic, and what if he were to change into a dragon all of a sudden? The couple waking up the boy for school to find a scaled beast where they had left the child the night before? He could only imagine chaos and Natsu getting hurt, and he couldn't let that happen.

He wasn't safe with the humans and he wasn't safe with the dragon council, and if either of the parties found out about him then he would be doomed one way or another. Which left only one choice: for Natsu to stay in hiding with Igneel.

However, if Igneel just disappeared off the face of the earth there would certainly be search parties to come and look for him, so he couldn't just go into hiding. He'd still have to go to the meetings that were held.

Luckily, the next one was still a little ways off so he had time to make sure that Natsu was well prepared for the couple of days that Igneel would be gone for. Still…he didn't like the idea of leaving the boy alone, even if it was only for two or three days. He would have to teach the child how to at least start a fire so that he could cook, and as long as they were near a lake or a stream the boy could live off of fish with his catching skills, or Igneel could cook a few rabbits and squirrels before he left…

Igneel felt something at his side suddenly and looked down to see Natsu curling up next to him as he had done every night since he had hatched. The small fire that had been burning before had died out and the cave was only illuminated by the moon from outside.

Within minutes Natsu was snoring loudly, but stayed curled up next to the dragon. Igneel chuckled and wrapped his tail around the young boy, laying his head down as well before closing his eyes. He had faith in Natsu and knew the boy would be able to handle a couple days without him if he knew the dragon was coming back.

And while he was there with all the other dragons, perhaps he could do some covert work and ask some trusted dragons about hatchlings and what they were like just after they hatched. Although if _he_ didn't know anything about it he had no idea who would.

Igneel yawned and Natsu nestled closer to him. Ah well, he would save that for later. Tonight, all they had to do was sleep.

* * *

><p>Alsarnia: Yo! So what did everyone think of this one?<br>Happy: It was horrible  
>Alsarnia: Happy is so mean!<br>Lucy: I thought it was good, if that makes you feel any better.  
>Natsu: I wasn't paying attention; it didn't have pictures so…<br>Alsarnia: Natsu is so mean!  
>Lucy: He's been in a bad mood today now that I think about it…<br>Natsu: ~hmph~ of course I'm angry! It's been 3 chapters and Igneel still isn't in the author's notes!  
>Alsarnia: That's because he doesn't fit…we can hardly fit…<br>(They all look down at the cardboard box they are all squished into and the plastic Barbie microphone they use to narrate)  
>Alsarnia: We need an upgrade…<br>Natsu: I'll go beat Gray up!  
>Lucy: How's that going to help?<br>Natsu: What? It's not. I just want to beat Gray up.  
>Happy: Maybe it'll relieve some of your tension…<br>Lucy: Back to the story  
>Alsarnia: Right! So I finally figured out a cool way to give Natsu his scar!<br>Natsu: OOO! What? When?  
>Alsarnia: I can promise you it's cool, but it won't show up for a long time if the plot goes as I want it to go.<br>Happy: O_o there's a plot?!  
>Lucy: What? Where?<br>Alsarnia: Yeah I know! I actually have a plot figured out! But it kinda focuses more around Igneel and the other dragons than the whole father-son thing; however Natsu and Igneel shall remain the center focus of the story. Unless I digress. This tends to happen a lot…  
>Happy: We noticed.<br>Alsarnia: Yeah…oh! And I found some text support when I was reading Fairy Tail earlier today about Natsu being a dragon! Check it.  
>"A 'real' Dragon Slayer? There is ordinarily no way for humans to learn dragon-slaying magic; it is a skill restricted to dragons themselves." ~As quoted from Cobra<br>Beat that  
>Natsu: I hated that guy…<br>Happy: I hated his snake…  
>Lucy: Why did you hate his snake, Happy?<br>Happy: Because he flies like me, but he's a snake! And snakes eat cats!  
>Alsarnia: I don't like snakes, but I like bears even less<br>Happy: I don't think a bear can fly no matter how hard it tries…  
>Alsarnia: Long Authors note is long! Again! It's 'cause I get off topic all the time!<br>Lucy: Ah…yeah.  
>Alsarnia: So, leave more reviews people! Oh, and here's some cookies for the people who do review or favorite or watch or whatever you do with this story! Unless you copyright. These mixtures of words are mine and if you try to steal them I shall bring the Debate Sword to your house and hack up all your Fairy Tail collectables!<br>Lucy: I'll hide their shoes!  
>Happy: I'll eat all their fishes!<br>Natsu: I'll burn their house down!  
>Everyone: -sweatdrop-<br>Natsu: What? Copyrighting is bad  
>Alsarnia: That it is Natsu; that it is. So please review everyone! Buh-bye!<p> 


	4. My Home is With You

Alsarnia: Tah-Dah!  
>Natsu: What?<br>Alsarnia: Lookie! Our box was upgraded! ^v^  
>{Everyone looks at the plastic playhouse they're in}<br>Lucy: Well…it's better than the box…  
>Alsarnia: Upgrade~!<br>Happy: Since we have more room, do you think we could invite Charle?  
>Alsarnia: No, we're not inviting anyone else in here, Happy.<br>Natsu: What about-  
>Alsarnia: He <em>still<em> doesn't fit! Plus, no one knows where he is right now…  
>Natsu: -grumpily plays with the doll house in the corner-<br>Lucy: We need a better upgrade…  
>Alsarnia: Reviews equal money people! Ha-ha, not really…<br>Happy: We got a lot of reviews this time!  
>Alsarnia: Oh, and what I said before, about me being able to update more because of my procrastination? That was a lie.<br>Happy: How could you!  
>Alsarnia: Turns out I'm actually making an effort this year to get good grades.<br>Happy: How could you!  
>Alsarnia: Because my parents won't let me get a car until I bump up my GPA because of my laziness last year…so I'm actually going to take longer to update than normal. Which means a chapter every…week and a half to 2 weeks, hope you guys don't mind waiting in-between chapters. You should do your homework too while you're waiting!<br>Natsu: I don't wanna!  
>Alsarnia: Tough pickles<br>Natsu: Pickles? Where?! Yummy!  
>Lucy: Anyways, onto the reviews!<br>Alsarnia: Yeah! Happy, why don't you start us off this time?  
>Happy: To Zero Sakura: Aye! I am really cute! But I agree, Natsu was really cute when he was little, just not as cute as me. Natsu <em>is<em> mysterious; no one knew what he had done before this fanfiction O_O  
>Alsarnia: Except for the author Hiro Mashima, plus this isn't real, thus the term fanfiction.<br>Happy: …Natsu! Alsarnia's being mean!  
>Alsarnia: What?<br>Happy: You ruined my cool moment.  
>Alsarnia: Ah…sorry…<br>Lucy: -rolls eyes- anyways, to PINKhairedBADASS: Do you really think Natsu is that cute/devilishly handsome? –glances at him and blushes- yeah, I suppose so…We're glad that you're enjoying the story so much and hope that you like this chapter!  
>Natsu: Lucy, you're weird… to Rogue Soul Alchemist: Yup, we're on it!<br>Happy: To MissSexyRain: Yay! We're funny!  
>Alsarnia: -Does a spit take- WHAT?! We're funny?! It's like a dream come true!<br>Lucy: To deidrasha the fallen angel: Great! Alsarnia works hard on this and she greatly appreciates the comment.  
>Natsu: Cileo: -nods- Igneel is the best dad ever! -tugs at scarf- is it really that interesting? Hmmm….-turns to Alsarnia- should I just tell them now?<br>Alsarnia: No! That's an important part to the story! You can't just tell them in the authors notes!  
>Natsu: Yeah, sure, whatever. Well, of <em>course<em> Igneel is great! What could make you think otherwise?  
>Happy: Well, a giant rat can fly because it lives in the sewers, but a bear can't fly because it runs uphill faster than downhill. –nods sagely-<br>Alsarnia: That…makes no sense at all.  
>Happy: Maybe not to you, but Cileo knows what I mean. To Zwnohyun: -nods- We plan on continuing the story all the way to when Igneel leaves, I hope you keep reading till then!<br>Lucy: And thanks to all the people who have added us on story alert and favorite stories and such.  
>Alsarnia: By the way, if any of you were wondering, Natsu should be around 5-6 in his mind-set, technically age thing. I don't know how to describe it because I have a feeling he spent a long time in that egg and that's why Freed's wall thing said he was older than 80. But when Hiro said that Wendy was 14 I think that it's because Grandine had laid Wendy's egg or whatever they do, and immediately had her hatch, thus having her be 14 years old instead of marinating in the egg like I think Natsu and Gajeel did.<br>Natsu: Hahaha! Marinating…what does that mean?  
>Happy: I think it has something to do with butter…<br>Natsu: Yum! Let's go have some toast!  
>Alsarnia: Wait! You have to wait for the chapter to be over! Quick Lucy, start it up!<br>Lucy: Fairy tail © Hiro Mashima  
>Alsarnia: and I don't own buttered toast either!<p>

* * *

><p>Igneel watched Natsu for a long time. He didn't know how long he had watched the child sleep; only that it was comforting in its own way. The sun still had not risen and neither had the boy, still deep in his dreams. The day before, he and Igneel had played, ran, and taught all day, making the both of them laugh until they fell asleep with smiles on their faces.<p>

Igneel had wanted Natsu's last day in that forest to be a happy and memorable one. It had been a month since Igneel had found the child and three since he had first come to the forest; it was time to leave. He didn't want Natsu getting too attached to any place in case humans were to come around and they would have to abruptly leave.

Of course, he wouldn't want to see the child cry when they left either, so he had decided that now was the best time to move. They'd follow the wind, just the two of them, to the next place they'd settle down. Perhaps another forest, or a mountain range, or a volcano, if they were lucky.

He stopped at the last part. Scratch that, no volcanoes. Natsu's dragon scales _may_ be very good already but he was still improving and Igneel didn't think the boy was ready for lava yet. Although, with the rate Natsu was going, he would have to start teaching the boy how to make his own fire soon enough.

Although he _was_ a little worried that the child would end up burning an entire forest down. But if he did end up doing just that, Igneel wouldn't deny a little pride.

Of course there had been a reason why Igneel had taught him the scales of the fire dragon first. When a dragon uses its fire the flames are always in contact with him, to the point where their scales and flames began to melt into each other. If Natsu were to try using his fire before he could protect himself he would've ended up hurting himself.

So it wasn't random that Natsu had learned the scales first, rather, Igneel had thought it out before hand, days before the boy had first asked to learn fire magic. The little boy squirmed a bit, waking up as the first rays of light touched the tree tops and struggled to reach the inner recesses of the cave.

The boy yawned sleepily. "G'mornin', Igneel."

Igneel smiled, but his heart sank. "Good morning, Natsu. Are you ready for a big day?"

He stared at his father foggily. "What do you mean?"

Igneel hadn't told Natsu that they were leaving; he wanted the boy to enjoy the time he had left without any worries. He couldn't help but feel like the bad guy; he just _knew_ that Natsu would hate to leave that cave and that lake and those trees because they were the only things he knew apart from Igneel and the heat of the fire. He didn't want to hurt Natsu, but this had to be done for many reasons.

"We're leaving Natsu."

The boy pondered this, still half asleep and not understanding its full meaning. "To the lake? Okay, but shouldn't we have breakfast first? I feel like rabbit this morning."

Igneel shook his mighty head. "No, Natsu, I mean we are leaving this forest."

When the realization finally hit the boy, his eyes widened. He gapped like a fish for a while, opening his mouth, as if to say something, then closing it, then opening it again. Igneel patiently waited for the boy's reaction, expecting and loud and haughty refusal to leave, then crying later.

But Natsu took several deep breaths and let them out slowly. "Igneel…"

"Yes?"

"Will I…get to stay with you?"

"Of course, Natsu, I'd never leave you."

The boy grinned up at his father. "Okay then! When do we leave?"

Igneel was surprised. "You're okay with leaving?"

Natsu hesitated, trying to put his feelings into words. "Well…a cave is just a cave, right? And a forest is just a forest, just like any other, so I can find a new one easily." He beamed at his father. "But there's only one Igneel, and so I want to stay with him."

There was a pause before Igneel started laughing. So, Igneel wasn't the only one teaching, huh? He supposed that this was what it was like to have a home in someone. Where ever the other was, that was their home.

Natsu laughed too, not really getting what Igneel was laughing at but feeling the joyfulness rub off on him. Wherever Igneel was, was where he was. Because when he was with Igneel he felt happy and the dragon felt the same way for the boy. Moving wouldn't be so bad so long as they had each other.

* * *

><p>The only thing the rabbit saw before it was caught in the hands of a small boy were the wide and excited black eyes and sharp toothed grin as he lunged for the animal.<p>

"Look, Igneel! Breakfast!"

Igneel had been working on erasing any hints that a dragon had been there, so was too busy to catch a breakfast for either of them. He looked at the rabbit and was impressed. It was still alive and in his hands. Natsu had only ever seen something be killed and cooked with fire, so he didn't know what to do with the live animal other than take it to Igneel.

The dragon quickly and painlessly put it out, cooked it, then gave it back to the boy. But Natsu shook his head and would not take it.

"I caught it for you Igneel!"

The dragon was lightly touched, especially since Natsu had said he wanted rabbit for breakfast. Igneel ate it in one bite, much to the joy of Natsu, then smiled fondly at his son. "Now go catch something to eat yourself."

"Okay!" The little boy scampered back into the underbrush to look for some other unsuspecting small animal.

Igneel chuckled to himself as he as he pushed another boulder into the middle of the cave. He had made the cave floor flat for the sake of not rolling onto a sharp rock in his sleep, but if someone were to come and see the natural cave all neat how he had made it then suspicions would arise. Before they left the cave he would tear up the ground so there would be no prints of his great feet everywhere. They would have to do the same with the lake; the moist soil had most defiantly made prints of the two.

Natsu came back with a squirrel for himself by the time Igneel was done with the cave. After cooking the squirrel, Igneel went to churning the soil around the cave. Natsu, seeing what he was doing, began his own spot and tore at the dirt with his nails.

The two worked in silence, both thinking about how they were working so hard to make a familiar place unfamiliar. It seemed unfair to both of them. Of course there had not been any humans in the forest (except Natsu, sort of), but it was a safety precaution.

He had already been there 3 times the normal amount of time he normally would so it was becoming dangerous. He was actually very surprised that no humans had come by the forest in so long. He didn't want to move, but the humans plus Natsu's clinging to this place made him feel it was necessary for them to.

Natsu didn't like this either. He could tell that Igneel liked this place as much as he did, but understood why they had to leave. Igneel had told him about the relationship between humans and dragons, how the humans believed the dragons to be a myth most of the time and if they did find a dragon that they tried to kill them, to keep them a myth. Humans were afraid of dragons because they had no power over them. Of course, there were only certain things that would even injure a dragon, including certain magic's and enchanted weapons.

"What kind of magic is mine?" he had asked, curious, seeing as he was a human that was supposed to hate Igneel.

The dragon hadn't said anything for a while, then answered, "Dragon Slayer. Your magic is one of the few that can harm a dragon."

"Dragon Slayer? What's a 'Slayer'?"

"A slayer is a killer."

"A dragon killer?" His eyes widened. "But you're a dragon! I don't want to kill you!"

Igneel just chuckled, his large breath rustling the boy's hair. "Yes, but not all dragons are like me. Some dragons kill for no reason and destroy everything they can just because they can."

Natsu didn't know Igneel had been lying about something, but he didn't know what. Igneel had thought long about it and decided it would be better if he didn't tell Natsu what he really was and make him believe he was a human. He would reveal the truth to his son when he was older and able to keep himself protected.

That way, even if the dragon council found out about him, Natsu would deny he was a dragon and would be able to escape their clutches. And if he was forced to move away from Igneel and live with humans then he would be able to lead a normal human life. He might even become a successful mage.

Normally, Igneel was never this cautious or cool tempered and level headed, but when it came to his son he couldn't help but worry and fuss over every inch of his well-being. Well, he supposed that that was what happened when you became a father.

Father. Father and son. He had been using those words very often and he liked them a lot. It left a certain taste in his mouth that he had never experienced before and it was delicious. He could only hope that he was as great of a father to Natsu as Natsu was a son to him.

The other thing he kept away from the boy was about the other dragons in the world, most importantly the two black dragons. One was the Dragon King who wasn't really a dragon at all. A dangerous creature that killed anyone who came near it relentlessly, treating dragons and humans alike as strangers and doing nothing but bringing destruction wherever he went.

The other was the black dragon of the High Council of dragons. One of the dragons who began to fight for co-existence with the humans, but when his own Dragon Slayer took his power and turned his back on him he completely switched sides, hating the humans from the bottom of his heart. Some said he had a piece of the dark mage Zeref in him that made him so powerful and that he had killed many other dragons to earn his place on the council. Igneel would, by all means, keep Natsu away from these black dragons. Neither could be beaten by just any old dragon.

Of course, Igneel wasn't just any dragon. He boasted being the strongest dragon alive all the time; he was the Great Fire Dragon Igneel, after all. Many dragons denied it, but when it came to it his flames could overpower just about anything. He had never gone against either of the black dragon before, but he was fairly confident that he could defeat at least one of the two

When Igneel was satisfied with their work he took Natsu to the lake and asked him to catch some fish as he broke the soil around the water as well. The boy happily complied; glad to be doing anything other than erasing their existence from the place he loved.

By the time Igneel was done, Natsu had caught more than enough fish for the both of them. "Now, after lunch, we'll start to leave, all right?" he said, toasting their meal.

The boy ate his first fish easily, but stopped and stared at the other one he had caught for himself.

Igneel took a little while to notice. "What's wrong? Oh, did you want it set on fire?"

Natsu was about to shake his head but hesitated. "Well…yeah. But that's not why I'm not eating."

"Oh?"

Natsu had purposefully not eaten to catch the dragon's attention so he could ask the question that had been haunting him since that morning; he didn't want to be the one to bring it up, really. He wanted Igneel to ask him what was wrong and an 'oh?' was good enough for him. "Igneel…will I…forget this place?"

Igneel blinked. "What?"

Natsu looked panic stricken, his fear coming out now. "What if I forget this place? I don't want to forget our cave or this lake or the things we did here. I want to remember it all. I know we'll find a new place to live and I won't forget you because you'll always be with me, but I don't want to forget this place either." A couple of hot tears dripped down his cheeks as he considered the prospect and hiccupped a bit.

Igneel lowered his head to level with Natsu's in case the child started _really_ crying. "What makes you think you'll forget this place?"

He sniffled. "I don't remember anything about my home before this forest and I don't remember anyone but you. I don't remember my parents at all; like you said."

Oh right, that's why he thought he couldn't remember anything. But he thought that he always remembered Igneel because he was with him everyday. A thought struck the dragon.

"I have an idea, Natsu, how about you take something from this forest with us so that you never forget it. Every time you look at the thing you'll remember this place. How does that sound?"

Natsu's eyes brightened and he wiped away his tears. "Okay!" He went searching around the lake for something to bring, picking up plants and rejecting them, a twig and tossing it away, rocks and chucking them into the forest. Finally, he chose a little aqua colored rock that he had gotten from the lake. It was smooth and kind of slimy to the touch with its blue color protruded by a green stripe in the middle. Natsu held it gently.

"I chose this, Igneel!" he said, showing his prize to the dragon. Igneel looked it over, as if inspecting it to be good enough. Natsu held his breath, waiting for the verdict. Igneel finally nodded in approval and Natsu squealed with excitement.

"Are you ready to go?" Igneel asked gently.

Natsu frowned for a moment and looked out across the lake one last time before looking down at the stone in his hand. "Yea, I'm ready." He climbed onto the dragon's back and snuggled against the scales, clutching the stone tightly.

Igneel took a moment before lifting off. He had a lot to thank this forest for. He had been at peace, away from the other dragons and humans for 3 months; he had found and raised Natsu here; he had been reawakened by the lake and in these trees in only 3 months.

He most defiantly had something to thank this forest for and as he stood there saying goodbye to the trees he had a silent conversation with the forest, thanking it for everything it had given him. For some reason, he knew that he would never be able to come back there again; there was some kind of magic that protected that ethereal place, which had been protecting Natsu for some reason.

His little egg had been protected by the bent bows of the trees for who knew how many years; he had been protected by this forest's magic for who knows how long and he thanked it for letting him in and letting him find Natsu. And with that final farewell he lifted into the air, unfolded his wings, and took to the direction the wind was going.

* * *

><p>Alsarnia: I'm sooooo sorry for posting this so late!<br>Lucy: -shakes her head-  
>Alsarnia: So, I've just been waaaaay busy with school. I've already told you the insane classes I'm taking and the homework I get is ridiculous, plus I'm an airhead so I have to look over the stuff I do a lot of the time. If I don't get high grades this semester I won't be allowed to buy a car!<br>Natsu: TRANSPORTATION?! Why would you _want_ that?  
>Alsarnia: Because I pull anti-Natsu's when on transportation, I love it and I tend to fall asleep from being so relaxed.<br>Natsu: How is that possible?!  
>Happy: You do it whenever Erza is riding with us!<br>Natsu: -remembers and makes a face- oh yea…  
>Alsarnia: Anyways…the way I write is annoying too. I always have to write a chapter or story down on paper before I type it up, I can't do it right any other way. So I write it, then type it, then I have to separate the paragraphs because I don't do that when I write it on paper, then I have to beta myself, which takes forever but I'm getting better at it. So, once again, I'm sorry!<br>Lucy: -looks over all existing chapters- have you noticed that each of your chapters is getting shorter and shorter?  
>Alsarnia: Yes…yes I have... I'm sorry for that too; I'll try to make the next one longer!<br>Natsu: Fun! New place!  
>Alsarnia: Yuppers! Also, I am actually quite shocked to hear that you guys think my AN's are funny! I'm glad, I just didn't think I was funny at all, I thought you guys just thought that I was blabbing this whole AN…which I kinda <em>do<em> do, don't I?  
>Natsu: PFFTT!<br>Lucy: What?  
>Natsu: She said 'do do'!<br>Happy: -cracks up-  
>Lucy+Alsarnia: -sweatdrop-<br>Lucy: I'll never understand their humor…  
>Alsarnia: Nope…Welp~! Hope you enjoyed this chapter and will be waiting patiently for the next one due to my horribly busy life! Until then!<p> 


	5. Don't Come Home

Alsarnia: -crying- you guys are fantastic, I love you!  
>Natsu: Are you ever going to start off a chapter without crying first?<br>Alsarnia: These are tears of joy from my great reviewers!  
>Happy: weirdo…<br>Natsu: But not as weird as Lucy.  
>Lucy: Hey! How am<em> I<em> the weird one here?  
>Natsu: It's just because you're so weird.<br>Happy: Aye!  
>Alsarnia: Anyways…so, I'm sure some of you have noticed that I joined the recent Fairy Tail short story competition by litashe. I glad that a lot of you like it! And I'm sorry I haven't been able to do the latest round yet(I think I'm disqualified for that but I'm not sure…). Although I kind of feel left out in the whole competition since most of the competitors like to do death fics and sad sort of pairing one-shots while I like to do fluffy stuff. I've never done a death fic before so I'm not so sure about my talents in that category and am trying to stay away from it for the competition.<br>Lucy: Thank you for not killing me  
>Alsarnia: Always a pleasure<br>Natsu: WHO KILLED LUCY?  
>Alsarnia: Like I just said, no one-<br>Natsu: IT WAS GRAY WASN'T IT?  
>{Natsu dashes out of the 'studio' in search of Gray}<br>Lucy: He just did that as an excuse to go beat up Gray, huh?  
>Happy: Aye! He's always looking for reasons to beat up Gray.<br>Alsarnia:…right…So I hope you guys liked the stories I did! Besides that, sorry for the irregular updates and hope you enjoy the chapter. Now onto the Reviews!  
>Lucy: to xBlaze: Alsarnia showed me some of that and I thought it was scary O_o I wouldn't want to be in that guy's situation –shivers-<br>Alsarnia: Yeah, but you have magic to fight off the monsters  
>Lucy: IT'S STILL SCARY!<br>Alsarnia: Right…  
>Happy: To AquaMiyuki: Aye! Don't tell anyone, but I'm the one who told him to say that!<br>Alsarnia: Liar!  
>Happy: Nuh-uh!<br>Alsarnia: You weren't even there with Natsu in that chapter!  
>Happy: It was telepathy!<br>Lucy: Anyways…since Natsu ran off we'll just skip him for today's reviews. To Zwnohyun: Nice name! Ah, Natsu was much cuter as a kid than he is now, isn't he? Alsarnia plans to keep this Fanfiction as cannon as possible and says that if everything she has written turns out to be wrong she'll change it to an AU. I'd like to see this forest; it sounds very interesting –looks pointedly at Alsarnia-  
>Alsarnia: -holds up hands defensively- Don't look at me! I just write it down! I'm as good as Zoro with directions! …literally, sadly…<br>Lucy: Back to the review, I think that this chapter is around the same length as the last one, Alsarnia is slacking…  
>Alsarnia: Hey! I'm lucky I have time to write at all!<br>Lucy: Whatever, hope you enjoy this update!  
>Happy: To MissSexyRain: Aye! I'm tutoring her in the History of Mages in Fiore!<br>Alsarnia: Which doesn't help me in school at all…  
>Happy: That was funny when Natsu kept running into the wall –snickers-<br>Lucy: to Wildcatshadow: We plan on having this go on for as long as we can!  
>Happy: to Team Magma's Northern Star: Here it is!<br>Alsarnia: Finally…  
>Lucy: to GirlinBlue2364: -giggles- that's why Alsarnia started this, and Natsu is so cute as he was a kid!<br>Happy: To : Well actually—  
>Alsarnia: WAIT! I wanna answer this one.<br>Happy: Alsarnia's mean! –goes to cry in the corner-  
>Alsarnia: Okay, so, to : ARE YOU A FREAKING MIND READER?! Though, that's just a brief outline of the insanely complicated not all pieced together plot line. Okay Happy, you can come do the last one.<br>Happy: -looks up sadly-  
>Alsarnia: -rolls eyes- and I'll give you a piece of pie.<br>Happy: -jumps up happily- Yay! PIE! To tydeerose: This chapter has been served!  
>Alsarnia: …so…Fairy tail © Hiro Mashima<p>

* * *

><p>"Are we there yet?"<p>

"No."

Silence.

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

Pause.

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

Beat.

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

Quiet.

"Are we there yet?"

"NO.

Natsu sighed in boredom. "But Igneeeeell! We've been flying for 3 whole days! I'm bored! I want you to teach me some more!"

The dragon and boy had been flying over land and sometimes water for days, only touching down in small patches of forest for rest and food. Natsu had been content enough to take naps, talk to Igneel, and play with his small stone on the ride, up until then. But of course, you can't keep a young boy still for long.

"Why don't we play a game?"

Natsu became very excited, he loved to play games! Like the one where Igneel would singe the bottom of one rock out of 3 then would mix them up with the blackened side on the bottom and Natsu would have to guess which one was singed. He wasn't very good at that one.

Igneel always mixed them up really well, but he was starting to get better. Igneel said it was instincts. So when the dragon suggested they play a game Natsu was thrilled.

"What game? What game?"

"It's called 'I spy'."

"'I spy'?" He had never played that one before.

"Yup."

"How do you play?"

"Well, you say 'I spy with my great eye something…' and you say something that describes the thing you choose, like the color or the size."

"I wanna play! I wanna play!"

Igneel chuckled. "Alright, do you want to go first?"

"Yeah, okay, I spy with my great eye something…white!"

_Cloud,_ Igneel thought immediately, but decided to humor the boy and let him believe it wasn't obvious. He looked around for something white and, to his dismay, there was nothing but the clouds. "Uh…is it…the clouds?"

Natsu gasped. "That's right! You're great at this game Igneel!"

"I have experience…alright, I spy with my great eye, something tall."

"Hmmm…you?"

"No."

"The mountain?"

"No."

"The trees?"

"That's right."

Natsu clapped happily. "My turn! I spy with my great eye, something white!"

Igneel sweat-dropped. "Is it…a cloud?"

Natsu grinned mischievously . "Nope!"

That surprised Igneel a bit, what else was white? He looked all around, but could find nothing, he even turned in a loop to look around and see if he missed anything behind them, but to avail.

"Okay Natsu, I give up." The little boy giggled and leaned over Igneel's side, holding onto the scales with his toes so he wouldn't fall. He started poking the dragon's silver underbelly. Igneel tried not to laugh as the boy's tiny fingers tickled him. "You're tummy is white!"

"T-that it is," Igneel choked out.

Natsu stopped a moment then smiled slyly. "Igneel, is that your tickle spot?"

"_No_! I don't have a tickle spot!"

Natsu's little fingers skittered across the scales of the great dragon, making both of them laugh. Natsu's little giggles and laughs were dotted by cute little hiccups that threatened to drop him off the dragon's side. Igneel barked with laughter and took deep, heaving breaths in-between because of Natsu's lack of ceasing the tickling. His wing beats became choppy as the dragon squirmed in the air.

"N-Natsu! Stop! I can't-HAHAHA-fly!"

Natsu pouted but stopped, taking note where the tickle-spot was for later. He climbed to Igneel's snout and leaned over so he was looking the dragon in the eye. "Igneel?"

"Yes?" He was still breathing kind of heavy but had straightened out his flying path.

"Are we there yet?"

Igneel sighed and looked down at the landscape. It was a very large forest with rather fat trees and big canopies that would make for good shelter. He couldn't see anything other than the trees, so he couldn't tell if there was any water nearby. He frowned. It looked sketchy, but…

"Well, let's see if we can find some water in the forest, then we can stay here."

"Yay!"

Since he had little room to land on Igneel landed straight down instead of gliding, with Natsu clutching onto his horns.

As soon as he landed Natsu went scampering into the woods. "I'm gonna look for water, so you stay here!"

As he disappeared behind the big trunks of the trees, Igneel chuckled. He was so cute sometimes. He took the time to survey the area and look at the forest. The trees were indeed huge, nearly twice as large as he was wide. The trunks were very broad and strong and most of the leaves and branches were at the very top of the trees were they could steal all the sunlight from the ground. Because of this, the floor was nearly bare except for a layer of dead leaves and fallen branches; no shrubs, bushes, or saplings were growing anywhere nearby.

_Wouldn't want a forest fire here_, he thought with a frown. But when Natsu came back with a big smile on his face Igneel couldn't help but feel the dissatisfaction disappear.

"Igneel! I found a river and it's got _lots_ of fish in it! Does that mean we can stay?" His bright little eyes looked up at him in excitement and Igneel couldn't let him down…

Igneel harrumphed. "Oh, alright, we can stay for a month."

Natsu cheered.

"But only because I can't smell that any humans have passed by here," he quickly said, which was true, but not the whole truth. Natsu nodded quickly, clutching his rock tightly.

Igneel sighed. The boy could be a bother, but it was worth it to see him happy. "Alright, first we need to find a place where we can stay, a home."

"Okay!" Natsu was immediately charging into the woods, looking behind every tree and rock, without even knowing exactly what he was looking for. Igneel was about to call after him, but decided against it and just let his son romp around and explore, seeing as the boy quickly forgot his mission.

After a while Igneel came across a mass of fallen over trees that had landed in a sort of dome-ish shape. He had to rearrange the trees a little so he could fit and wouldn't squish Natsu, but overall it was a good enough place, easy to cover up when they left as well. Just as he was about to go looking for Natsu and show him where they'd be staying he head a girlie sort of shriek coming from the forest where Natsu had disappeared into.

_What the_—

Said little boy burst through the trees with a panicked look in his eyes. "Igneel! Help me!" and, as the boy's attacker came into view, instead of jumping into action and helping him like any other father would, Igneel rolled onto his side and laughed his tail off at Natsu.

"Igneel!"

"Just a minute," he replied, still laughing.

The creature chasing him was a frog like thing about half the boy's size that flicked its tongue out and poked Natsu's back every few seconds. Every time the tongue connected with his skin a shiver went through the boy and a look of disgust covered his face.

"He's going to _eat me_!" he cried out and Igneel laughed harder, knowing the boy was in no danger. He _should_ help Natsu since he was still such a young boy, but _really_? A _frog_? He just couldn't stop laughing at that.

"_Igneel_!"

"Alright, alright," he finally said, righting himself and trying not to laugh at the scene again. "But you have to fight it."

"_What_?"

Igneel saw this as a good time to teach Natsu how to fight. There was really no better way to learn how to fight then in a battle.

"Igneel, I can't fight! I don't have any fire!"

"You don't need fire for something this weak! Now stop running away and face it."

After taking a deep breath and gathering his courage, Natsu spun on his heel, nearly making the frog run into him. The frog jumped back with a deep 'ribbit' and glared at the boy as Natsu tried to stare it down. "N-now what?"

"Now, you can choose whether to attack it first or wait for it to attack."

No hesitation, Natsu charged at the frog, who was surprised by the sudden outburst and didn't move before the boy head-butted the frog and knocked it over.

"Good job Natsu! Now hit 'em!"

Igneel cheered and Natsu went to punch it but the frog hopped out of the way and puffed up its chest.

"Natsu, dodge it!"

He dove to the ground and the tongue sailed above him. As Natsu scrambled up the frog puffed its chest up again.

"Natsu!"

The boy ducked just as the tongue came out, then ran at the frog with his fist clenched tightly. He punched the frog square in the middle of its eyes. His punch was weak, coming from such a young kid, but the frog wasn't very strong either and it fell over.

"Knockout!" Igneel said, happy about how well Natsu had done for his first battle.

The boy stared at the frog and his hand before looking up and beaming at the dragon. "I beat it!"

"Good job!"

"Can we eat it?"

Igneel looked down at the frog, who whimpered pitifully, then scowled at the boy. "This is your challenger who you fought a great battle against. You don't eat your opponents. Whether you win or lose a battle it's never just for the sake of fighting." He wrinkled his snout. "Those who fight for bad reasons should not be allowed to have the power to fight."

Natsu looked at the dragon with wide eyes. "Bad reasons? Like what?"

"Well…" he began, "A bad reason would be like…if someone wanted to hurt you or your friends."

Natsu nodded, soaking in every word.

"Or if they want to fight for no reason at all, just to fight. Or if their fighting will hurt others, or when they want to do bad in general."

Natsu frowned. "It sounds like there aren't any good reasons."

Igneel smiled. "Of course there are good reasons to fight as well. Like fighting for your friends so they won't be hurt. Fighting against people with bad reasons to stop them. Fighting to see who is stronger, fighting to become stronger, to protect others, to protect yourself, to protect your ideals, basically to protect anything of yours that is being threatened. Anything you want to protect: you fight for. For example, I would fight for you or this forest because I treasure you both."

Natsu nodded, understanding. "But what if two people are fighting against each other for good reasons? Like they are both protecting a friend?"

"Well then they shouldn't be fighting, they should be helping each other."

The little boy's eyes glittered in excitement. "And so we fight people with bad reasons to stop them and protect our friends, right?"

Igneel nodded. "We are people with good reasons to fight and so we fight people with bad reasons to stop them. But to do that we have to be strong enough to fight them and win. Say you met another dragon who wanted to fight for a bad reason; you wouldn't be able to beat him because he's so strong."

Natsu scoffed at the idea of someone being stronger than he, but then thought about it. "But if I can't win then what do I do?"

Igneel smiled. "You'd call me and I'd help you; you stand back up and keep fighting, someone strong never gives up. That's what being strong really means."

Natsu was very excited now as he hopped up and down. "Okay! Then I'll go find some more frogs to fight!"

Igneel smirked. "What's your reason?"

Natsu beamed. "To become stronger! I'll challenge them!"

Igneel nodded and Natsu skipped off to where Igneel supposed the river was to find more frogs. Igneel chuckled and left him to it as he caught and ate a few birds then took a nap.

* * *

><p>"Igneel…Igneeeel!" Natsu whispered, shaking the dragon slightly, but Igneel slept on, thinking that a large bug had run into him. Natsu smiled deviously and then stuck his hand up the dragon's nose. Igneel woke with a start and Natsu pulled his hand back with a disgusted face.<p>

"Wha— Natsu! What was that?"

"Your boogers are gross!"

"Your hand is gross!" he retorted, feeling a bit like a kid again.

"But I needed to wake you up!"

"What is it?"

Natsu stepped to the side to show 3 more frogs that he had beaten and dragged there. Igneel only now noticed how worn and beaten Natsu looked. He had quite a few bruises blossoming on his exposed skin, scraps, cuts, and his hair was disheveled, let alone how he was covered in mud and water.

"I'm getting stronger, right?"

Igneel chuckled. "You're getting there."

"Oh!" Natsu jumped on the pile of frogs and pulled out a blue squirrel from under them, which was also knocked out. "And I caught dinner!"

Igneel couldn't help but wonder why the squirrel was such an odd color, but cooked it anyways and waited till he was done to tell him to take the frogs back and wash himself off. Igneel followed to get some water and to make sure that Natsu completely cleaned himself off.

He was right to too, because the boy tried to just dunk himself in the water and say he was clean. Igneel kept having to chuck him into the water until he gave up and washed all the dirt and mud off.

After he was clean and Igneel was leading them back home the dragon looked back at Natsu, who was riding on his back, tired. "Where's your stone?"

The boy opened one of his fists to reveal the rock, which he had been carrying the whole time. "Right here." This was punctuated with a yawn as he slumped forward slightly.

Igneel chuckled. "You can keep it in our shelter so you don't have to carry it around, okay?"

Natsu liked the idea. "Mmm-hmm…"

A minute later was disrupted by a snore and the dragon chuckled again. When they made it back to the cave, Igneel set Natsu in then scooted inside himself, curling his tail around the little boy to keep him close and warm. Natsu mumbled happily in his sleep and Igneel smiled.

The little boy could fight now and he was proud, but he'd have to tell the boy to stop picking on the frogs. Igneel yawned. But that could wait till tomorrow. He was tired from flying so long.

* * *

><p>The next day, when Igneel woke up, Natsu was still asleep. The boy was holding on tightly to his tail and was snoring loudly. Igneel wasn't bothered by the noise because he believed the more peacefully you slept the louder you snore. That, and he was pretty sure his snoring was at least five times worse.<p>

He was about to gently shake the boy awake when he remembered how Natsu had woken him up the day before. With a sly grin he stuck the tip of his claw up Natsu's nose. The boy woke with a start and gave a little yelp.

When he realized what happened he made a face. "Your claw is disgusting!"

"Your boogers are disgusting!"

They both laughed at their inside joke, Igneel's a deep guffaw and Natsu's a little giggle. When it was time to go to the river, Natsu put his stone down safely in a corner of their shelter and they walked to the river together. Natsu was skipping along the river bank, enjoying himself when he caught fish for breakfast, when a frog popped up before him with an angry look on its face.

Natsu blinked a moment, then grinned. "Is it challenging me?"

Igneel remembered what he had been thinking about last night. "Natsu, you shouldn't pick on the frogs and fight them like you have, it's not nice."

Natsu frowned. "Am I doing it for a bad reason?"

"Not exactly, but you're not doing it for a very good reason either. You're challenging them but you have to be sure they want to fight too or else it's just hurting others and it'll be a bad reason."

Natsu's eyes widened. "I'll ask him then!"

He turned to the frog and puffed up his chest. "Did you come to challenge me?"

The frog shook its head and Natsu deflated.

"See? It probably just wants you to stop picking on its friends."

Natsu frowned. "I'm sorry, frog, for fighting your friends. Is that what you wanted to say?"

It shook its head, "Ribbit", and turned to the river. Out from the water jumped a huge frog (At least to Natsu, it was tiny compared to Igneel) about twice Natsu's size.

Natsu's eyes widened and the big frog let out a rumbling "Ribbit".

He looked excitedly at the frog then turned back to Igneel. "Look at that frog! It's got a shiny thing on its head!"

Igneel glared at the frog, not liking the situation. The frog, despite standing right in front of him, managed to be completely oblivious to the dragon. Igneel concluded the frog was very, very stupid. And Natsu was reaching up and trying to take the crown that was on its head.

"Natsu," he scolded and pulled the child back. He hadn't realized that the frogs Natsu had been fighting were actually monsters. The frogs seemed so weak that he thought they were normal animals; they weren't even very strong since such a small boy like Natsu could take on several of them in a row. But he wasn't so sure about this King Frog.

Natsu struggled against Igneel's grip, still aiming for the crown on the frog's head. Igneel scowled and harrumphed. "Natsu, stop it, you can't have its crown."

But Natsu looked up at Igneel with even more excited eyes. "That's a crown? Like with the letter C? I want it, Igneel. I want it!"

Finally, Igneel sighed and let the boy go; much to the younger's surprise. Igneel looked at him seriously. "If you want it you have to get it yourself."

Natsu blinked. "You mean, challenge him?"

Igneel nodded and Natsu smiled. "Alright! I'll win!" Natsu stood proudly before the frog and pointed at it. "I challenge you to a battle! If I win, I get your crown and if you win…uh…"

The frog ribbited loudly and Natsu blinked in surprise and confusion.

"He said that if he wins then you can't challenge the other frogs anymore," Igneel translated easily.

"Oh! Alright!"

Igneel laid down nearby to watch the fight as the two squared off against each other.

"Igneel! Don't interfere!"

The dragon chuckled. "Never."

"Alright!" the boy said, slamming his fist into his palm. "I'm all fired up!"

Igneel couldn't help but laugh again since the boy couldn't use fire but still used the phrase.

"Alright, frog! Come and get meee—aaaAWWAAAAHHHH!" As he was talking the frog's throat swelled and flung its tongue at the boy, who just barely dodged. "It's so much faster than the other ones!" he said in surprise, quickly crawling out of the way from the next attack.

He got back up and was about to rush it like he had the others when the tongue hit him in the chest and sent him flying into a tree behind him. He got back up and was going to try again when it grabbed his foot and swung him into several trees, finally dropping him into the water.

Natsu came back up and quickly swam to shore. "I won't give up!"

Igneel laughed. "Good boy, Natsu. A true warrior never backs down from a fight, especially when you're the one that started it."

Natsu smiled, yelled "Right!", and went after it again.

For two whole hours Igneel watched his son get pummeled by a frog. The boy stood up again, defiant, although battered. He had huge bruises all over him, cuts and scrapes that were either still bleeding or trying to scab despite how Natsu kept moving around. The boy already had a black eye and even perhaps a broken arm, but when Igneel pointed it out Natsu said it was fine since it wasn't his punching arm. But now, Igneel was getting seriously worried about the boy.

"Natsu…what I said earlier about never backing out of a battle…when you're getting beaten this badly it's okay to back out."

"No! I know I can beat him!"

"Natsu, really, you should stop."

"_No!"_

"Natsu!"

"I _won't give up_."

"Natsu, I'm your father and I'm telling you to stop this _now_."

The boy finally turned around to face the dragon and Igneel could see the fiery determination in his eyes. "_No_."

For the first time in a long time, Igneel was angry. No, he was furious. Why wouldn't the boy just listen to him? He was worried about his health because he knew that if this continued Natsu would just continue to get himself hurt, but even so the boy was insisting on going on even though he ordered him to stop.

Although he was battered, beaten, bruised, and much smaller than the dragon, Natsu didn't back down and just glared up at his father.

"Fine then!" Igneel roared. "But don't come home tonight!"

When he saw Natsu's strength and stance break he felt like he had broken something very delicate, but at the same time his anger felt satisfied at the boy's heartbroken face. Feeling like he had actually lost the argument rather than winning it, Igneel turned back to where his temporary home was.

The frog seemed to have_ just_ realized there had been a third party and slowly pieced things together as Natsu stood staring blankly at the place Igneel had just been standing.

Eventually, when the frog figured everything out, it said, "Ribbit." _Hey kid_.

Natsu, surprised by the voice, turned back to it with wide, pain filled eyes. "Yes?"

"Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit, ribbit, ribbit." _How about I kill you now_?

"Oh, okay, you want to continue this tomorrow?"

"Ribbit…" _Wha_…

"Okay then, bye…"

"Ribbit." _See you_.

Natsu walked back into the forest to find a place he could stay for the night. It took the frog a full 15 minutes to realize what had happened. And upon realizing it blinked and slunk back into the river.

* * *

><p>Alsarnia: Haha, I suck<br>Lucy: -unamused- yeah, kinda.  
>Alsarnia: I've taken forever to write this, and the only excuse I have…is Happy broke my computer!<br>Happy: -goes wide eyed- I did not!  
>Alsarnia: Yes you did! When you were flying around with that hot chocolate you spilled it all over my computer!<br>Happy: It wasn't hot chocolate it was chocolate milk and I only got it on your ipod!  
>Alsarnia: No, it was…you broke my ipod?<br>Lucy: Alright, let's leave before this gets ugly…Thanks for tuning in! Come back for the next chapter.  
>Alsarnia: Which will most likely come up sooner rather than later this time! YOU BROKE MY IPOD?!<br>Happy: -laughing and flying away for his life- Bye!


	6. The Light Leads You Home

Alsarnia: Hi everyone!  
>Fans: -throw their shoes at author's head-<br>Alsarnia: -faints from bloodloss-  
>Natsu+Happy: -laugh hysterically-<br>Lucy: Sigh~ -delivers quick punches to boys and ignores unconscious form of author- Alright, so, since our author has been knocked unconscious due to flying footwear, I'll be starting out the Authors Notes.  
>Natsu: -whines- I wanted to start it out!<br>Lucy: -pats him on the head- you can do it next time. –ahem- our esteemed author would like to apologize for the incredibly late update. She had an excuse that works for about two months of the lateness but the rest is due to her simply being too lazy to open Microsoft Word. –kicks slumped form for emphasis- So, for two months, she was-  
>Happy: Publishing a book!<br>Natsu: It's not very good…  
>Lucy: -punches Natsu again- it's not<em> that<em> bad!  
>Alsarnia: -sits up- I feel like I'm being insulted…<br>Fans: -swiftly beat author to the ground again-  
>Lucy: Okay, so it's certainly not the best seller she's hoping to write someday, but it's a fun book to read.<br>Natsu: That is, if you_ like _to read.  
>Happy: Natsu, everyone who will read this is on fanfiction…which kind of <em>means<em> that they like to read.  
>Lucy: -AHEM- Right, so, that is Alsarnia's excuse for the slow update.<br>Happy: Also, we got so many reviews during this time that we're going to put them at the end so they don't bother people who only want to read the story.  
>Natsu: We got so many that our play house has been upgraded to a shed!<br>Everyone: Yay!  
>Alsarnia: ugh…<br>Happy: Fairy Tail © Hiro Mashima

* * *

><p>As Igneel settled into his home for the night, he knew that he shouldn't have yelled at Natsu. There was an aching feeling that was slowly rising in his chest that <em>would not go away<em>. Igneel internally fought it away for a while, refusing to recognize it or even think about the boy that he had yelled at only an hour ago. But it was impossible.

Igneel rumbled in displeasure and wriggled around in the makeshift home they'd made when they first got to the forest the day before.

They…

No! Just him now! Just Igneel, once again. He didn't need anyone! It was _Natsu_'s fault that he'd gotten angry! _He_ had just charged into battle, getting himself hurt over and over and not listening to him when he was getting worried for him.

_NO_! Igneel was not _worried_! _The Great Igneel_ didn't get worried over a pathetic little…

Igneel turned over again, unable to get comfortable. Well…he didn't feel so _great_ right then. Seeing the small rock that Natsu had brought with him from the other forest in the corner of their set up home set the dragon on edge and so he got up.

Ignoring the fact that he'd been out all day, Igneel thought that a stroll might help him to clear his head and make the aching go away. Purposefully, he turned away from the river and walked in a different direction.

That's right. Peaceful trees and dirt and leaves and woodland animals. That's all he needed to clear his head. That was all he needed.

But he slowly found his brisk walk turning into a trudging through the forest with his head dipped down and a low growl constantly coming from his scaly lips. Why wouldn't this _aching_ go away? Natsu was gone! That was it! He'd told the boy not to come home and he hadn't.

But as he closed his eyes for some peace, all he could see was the devastated look on his son's face as he yelled at the boy. Igneel felt his claws pause in their trekking.

No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. He would _not_ feel bad for what he did. He was the Great Igneel; he did not regret a single thing he'd done in his life! And yet he found himself turning around and sniffing the air for the smell of ash and fire that he knew to be Natsu's scent.

NO, NO, NO! He would not be the one to apologize! Wait, _exactly_! He was going to find Natsu so that the boy could apologize to him! But as he tromped through the forest with new vigor, searching behind every tree and every bush and sniffing the air more often than needed in case a breeze with the boy's scent passed by, he realized this wasn't true either.

He felt pathetic. A dragon who couldn't stand to be gone from a small boy for more than a few hours! But he knew that wasn't all there was to it. He had gotten angry. He had yelled at the child. He'd made Natsu make _that face_ when he was hurt.

Why had he gotten so angry anyways? Because Natsu was brave enough to fight for the things he wanted? Because he was being reckless and Igneel didn't want his boy to be making a bad name for himself? Because he was getting hurt and there was nothing Igneel could do to stop it.

The last wasn't a question to himself, but more of an answer. Of course, _most _fathers would just jump right in and say "nope, this is over!" and all the trees in the forest knew he could do it too. But _Natsu_'s pride held him back.

He knew that if he were to jump in the middle of Natsu's first real _fight_, the first step to becoming a man (er, dragon), he wouldn't be the same. He would probably be more sad or angry at Igneel for getting in the way than he was now.

How _was_ he now? Was he angry at Igneel for yelling at him? Or was he devastated that the dragon would get so angry at him? In all honesty, Igneel didn't know the boy well enough to even guess.

Somehow, this was a huge blow to him. He didn't even know his own son well enough to know if he was angry with him or crying somewhere in the woods. Granted, he had only been with the boy for a few months, but still…

Igneel found himself looking for the boy with twice the energy. If he was sad and alone in the woods, what on Earthland could happen to him? And if he was angry…

Igneel felt the aching in his chest rise a little. What could he do about it? Should he, the _Great Igneel_, _bow_ to a young boy and _apologize_ to him? Bend his pride and apologize to such a small and weak form? But, Igneel suddenly realized, a broken pride would be a small price to pay to have Natsu forgive him and come home again.

It was strange to Igneel that he was looking for someone, for never before had he sought someone out specifically. Dragons were independent creatures, and really, Igneel wouldn't normally have chosen to talk to any other person if he had the choice. The only thing that _made_ him talk to anyone else before Natsu was the dragon assembly.

But that was also probably the most undesirable thing in his life. If he had a choice he would not go to the meetings, but there were several dragons that were especially good at tracking others down, and while he never lost a one on one battle it would probably be a stretch against seven or ten of them.

Igneel had never gone looking for anyone before, but he soon found himself calling out to the forest for his son.

* * *

><p>After Igneel had left, Natsu was at a loss of what to do. He couldn't get any food to eat, because he couldn't cook anything and didn't know which of the few plants he found were edible. He couldn't climb a tree to get away from any ferocious monsters that might be around because his arm was broken and now was throbbing painfully. And he couldn't quite feel comfortable to sleep away his sadness and feeling of loss because the lack of heat that normally came from his dragon made his bones shiver terribly.<p>

The forest that had seemed so interesting and that he'd been so eager to explore before had become a barren, dangerous wasteland that had him jumping every few paces. He called out shakily for Igneel, hoping that the dragon would appear and forgive him, but got no answer. Of course, the great dragon wouldn't answer, he thought to himself as tears sprung up to his eyes. _He probably hates me now_.

He stopped and slumped down against a tree, feeling loss, betrayal, and sadness overcome his heart. He let his arm hang limp at his side and buried his face into his knees, letting out a sobbed "Igneel…" before grief overtook the young boy and he poured his heart out into the empty forest.

He didn't know how long he cried for, only that his tears continued to flow and he did nothing to stop them until he fell into sleep. When he woke it was darker than he remembered, everything was darker without the fire dragon and his warming light. Everything was dark, in every direction, pressing into him and choking him until—

Natsu started, having seen a glint through the darkness, a light that pricked the black, if only for a moment. Natsu tried to call out for his father, but his throat was sore from crying and he could only make a strangled croak. But the light came closer without his cry and Natsu thought his father had found him.

Too tired to move, he waited and watched as the bobbing light approached until it hovered just before his nose. The boy blinked. It was most certainly not Igneel but…what was it?

It looked kind of like him, but smaller and with longer limbs and more matured features than if he was that size. Golden, spiky hair, glowing eyes, golden skin, and little leaves crafted into a small shirt and skirt were what he saw on the little person and the young boy was awed.

But what really enraptured him were the transparent wings that were so different from dragon wings and allowed the creature to fly. That and the tail that curled out from the skirt and swayed with curiosity. The two examined each other until the little creature let out a tinkling giggle and flipped backwards onto the boys tear stained knees.

Natsu wiped his face of tears and snot so he could look at the girl in wonder. "Who are you?" he asked, voice a little less strained.

She spoke in bells and tinkles so Natsu pretended to know what she was saying.

"You're name is Bell? Okay! I'm Natsu!" Somehow, the presence of this tiny girl comforted him and made him feel safer. Bell tingled again and, when Natsu didn't respond, she floated over to his limp arm.

In confusion, he held it up, wincing as he did so. Bell spun around his arm, speaking in her silver bell voice and passing her hands over the swelled skin. The inflammations went down and the pain subsided into nothing and by the time she was done and her golden glow went back to normal, Natsu's arm felt better than it ever had. Natsu clenched his hand and flexed his arm, amazed at the little persons healing ability.

He smiled at her. "Thanks! You're really nice!"

The person giggled and flew about happily. Natsu got up and danced around with her a bit; Bell really knew how to have fun! But eventually, Natsu stopped skipping around as his stomach demanded food.

He frowned down at his midsection and poked it. "I'm hungry~" he whined, and the little person giggled. Suddenly, her light was gone, going up and up into the branches of the huge trees above them.

Natsu looked up at her steady glow as it darted around, wondering what she was doing, when a fruit squashed right in front of him. He started and blinked at the fruit that had _smushed_ upon impact, then grabbed it and sunk his teeth into the soft flesh.

It was the juiciest fruit he'd ever eaten! Well, it was the only fruit he'd ever eaten, but it was still really good! A few more fruits fell to the earth and the girl followed them, watching Natsu eat with a slight smile.

When he was done, he smiled at her widely, juice from the fruits all over his face. She laughed again and flew about a little before she stopped and started pointing in a seemingly random direction.

Natsu cocked his head in confusion. "What is it, Bell? Did you see a frog?" The tiny person shook her head and started tugging on his hand. "You want us to go that way?" Bell nodded and pointed again.

Natsu shrugged and started walking, seeing no harm in following his new friend's directions. As Bell took a seat on his shoulder and he weaved through the trees, Natsu realized that he didn't know where he was or even how to get back to the river, let alone back to the "house" he and Igneel had made.

Just by thinking of the dragon, his face fell and his pace slowed. Bell leaned forward to see his face starting to leak again. She made concerned sounds and patted his cheek comfortingly.

Natsu looked at her in surprise, as if he'd forgotten she was there, and wiped his face. "Sorry, Bell," he sniffed. "I'm just sad because Igneel got mad at me."

Bell spoke in what seemed to be a question.

"Well, Igneel told me that to protect the things I love I have to get strong, and he said to get strong I have to fight others. So I challenged a bunch of frogs to battle and beat all of them and got stronger!"

Bell scowled and it looked like she was scolding him. Natsu frowned.

"Yeah, I know that now. Beating up the frogs was mean so I won't do it anymore. Ah, but then this really_ big_ frog came out and he had this shiny—uh—crown on his head. So he challenged me and I said if I won then I could have his crown, so he said yeah and we fought and—"

Bell suddenly flew up from his shoulder and into his face. Even though he couldn't tell what her angry exclamations meant he could tell from her face that she was furious with him. At the end of her speech she slapped him in the nose and he cringed away, rubbing the spot.

"Owie! Why'd you do that?"

Bell scowled and chatted a bit more. Natsu's face fell again as he deduced what she was angry about.

"Yeah…I guess I _was_ mean…and Igneel got mad at me because of it, huh? But, what do I do now?"

Bell looked thoughtful, thinking how to communicate with the boy when she noticed the little red mark on his nose. She snapped her tiny fingers, making a little raindrop-like noise, and looked at the boy apologetically.

Natsu was now confused. "What's wrong, Bell?"

She patted his nose gently and looked up sadly.

"Oh, are you saying sorry for hitting me? It's okay, I forgive you." Realization passed his eyes. "Oh! I get it. I should say sorry!"

Bell smiled and nodded. Natsu was silent for a little while as his small brain tried to comprehend what she had said and what he had to do and how the frog would probably react after _another_ apology. Eventually he gave up with a pout.

"Are you sure that will work? Will the frog be nice when I say sorry again?"

Bell looked thoughtful as they continued to walk through the forest again. Finally she nodded again and went into another bout that Natsu pretended to listen to but didn't understand at all.

When she was done, looking very proud of herself and the words she had spoken, Natsu asked her, "Do you think Igneel will like me again if I say sorry to the frog?"

For a moment, Bell thought that Natsu hadn't heard anything she'd just said, but shrugged it off. Even if he hadn't heard what she'd said, he seemed to be thinking deeply about this at the very least.

What she didn't know was that Natsu had just been thinking of what Igneel would do the whole time. He couldn't stop thinking about his father and how angry he had been before he ran away last night. The thought of the dragon still being angry at him nearly made tears come back to his eyes, but he fought them away. If there was anything he had learned that night it was that crying didn't make everything go back to normal.

Igneel… It felt like there was a nagging hole in him that just wouldn't go away. No matter what, there was always the same thought in the back of his head that continued to taunt him, reminding him every second that Igneel was angry with him, that Igneel had yelled at him, and that it was _his fault_ that Igneel was mad.

A heartbreaking thought from the night struck him. Did Igneel hate him? What if he went back and apologized to the frog again and it was still angry and attacked him again? He'd just fight it off of course! But then Igneel would be even more mad…or would he not even care anymore?

Even worse, what if the frog _did_ accept the apology and Igneel was _still_ mad? What could he _possibly_ do to make Igneel forgive him? Could he stay with Bell? She had turned out to be a nice friend and he wouldn't mind staying with her, but it wouldn't be the same as it was with Igneel. That hole would still be there and Natsu didn't think that it would ever go away if he didn't get his father to accept him again.

Bell looked at the boy with worry. His pink eyebrows were knit as he tried very hard to think deeply, no matter how hard it was for his young mind. She chittered lightly and he turned his head so she could look into his eyes more carefully. The orbs were filled with sadness, worry, and anxiety and she could only guess what he was thinking. She patted his cheek lightly, telling him it was okay and that if his father really loved him then he would definitely take him back.

Natsu didn't understand, once again, but he smiled a little, knowing that she was trying to cheer him up despite the language barrier. He sniffed lightly, expelling the remains of his near cry.

"Thanks Bell. You're really nice, you know that?" He paused a moment, searching his memory for something that Igneel had taught him a while ago. What was that word again? "Oh yeah, friend! Bell, you're my friend, right?"

She smiled brightly (literally) and nodded, making sparks of light go flying around her head and dusting Natsu's shoulder. He smiled back widely, showing sharp canines that stood out starkly.

This surprised her slightly, but she brushed it off. She'd already known that Natsu wasn't a normal boy if he had been out so far into this forest all by himself; she hadn't expected his teeth to be so _sharp_, but she should have expected something to be different about him. She had a feeling that it wasn't only sharp teeth, but knew that even if she asked him about anything he wouldn't be able to understand her and thus be unable to answer any of her questions.

It was a little frustrating, being able to tell what he was saying but unable to communicate the other way as well. Then it was a little sad, knowing that after she helped him find his father that they probably would never see each other again and thus not have to communicate. Even so, she was happy that she could have met the strange young boy.

She hadn't meant to, really; she had just been wandering the forest when she saw the shock of pink and gone to investigate. Realizing that it was a child, she decided to help. He was, after all, the first human she had ever seen before. So, after helping feed him and deducing that the boy was lost, she pointed him in the direction of the river, thinking that if he could find his way to the landmark then he'd be able to find his way home again, or would find his father, who must be looking for him as well.

The smiles stayed for longer than either of them thought they would. Bell was glad that she had really made friends with Natsu, who she thought she would have just directed then left. And the gnawing ache in Natsu's stomach was a little more bearable with Bell, if not completely gone. The two continued on their journey through the forest.

* * *

><p>Several kilometers away, Igneel was doing the exact same thing. Though with less smiles and more colorful curses. He wasn't <em>trying<em> to-of course the Great Igneel didn't _try_ to worry-but nearly every minute that passed that he didn't know where Natsu was and what he was doing was almost excruciating.

When was the last time he'd eaten? How was his broken arm? Had he drank any water in the past few hours? Natsu was still young, had he been crying at any point? Was he still crying? Thinking that his outburst had driven his son to tears made his stomach sink. The last time anything like that had happened was when he had burned the boy when teaching him how to eat fire.

Natsu was a generally bright and happy child; Igneel had never seen him actually sad before. Maybe when he explained death to the child there was a lingering sadness for the deer he had used for demonstration, but the boy was quickly back up on his feet. To think that he had caused his son to be really truly sad at all was a terrible thought.

But still, he didn't know how Natsu was feeling, or what he was doing. Perhaps he was just pouting in the forest somewhere, kicking leaves up and whacking sticks against tree trunks until they broke as he was fond of doing when Igneel was doing something else.

Or perhaps he was angry at the dragon. Thinking the boy was mad at him gave him another dark feeling, though different than the thought of him driving the boy to tears. In all honesty, Igneel knew he deserved it. Natsu should be angry at him; he should be hated by the boy. He had yelled at him so quickly and over such a trivial matter; there should be no excuses and Natsu should scold him. As soon as he finds him again that is.

But no. Igneel knew that this wasn't the case. Natsu wasn't really one to get angry very quickly, not like Igneel anyhow. He'd seen the boy get angry at a large fish for taking the smaller one that he had been trying to catch-then insisted on hunting it in the lake until he found the same fish and caught it-but he'd never snapped at anything, had never gotten angry so quickly before.

In that case, Igneel was glad that Natsu didn't take after him. He was known among the other dragons to have a snappish temper, but had held it mostly under control since Natsu had come to live with him. He knew that to get angry quickly around a young child was dangerous and that patience was a must for taking care of one.

Still, every once and a while Natsu would do something particularly dangerous or stupid and Igneel would lose his temper a little, but never had he really _yelled_ at the boy. And _never_ had he said something so drastic as to tell the boy not to come back home. Now that he thought back to what had happened, it seemed so idiotic of him to get so angry.

Of course, it wasn't Natsu's fault that he couldn't fight a king frog only a day after the boy learned the basics of fighting. He had done wonderfully against the other frogs and the misguided reasons he was fighting for were Igneel's fault for not teaching him properly before sending him off with fists blazing. And when Natsu refused to back down like a true warrior he was really only following what Igneel had told him earlier.

For some reason he had snapped back at the boy and when Natsu had talked back to him he had gotten furious. _No one _challenged the Great Igneel's word. _No one_. Not the humans, not the other animals, not even most dragons. And when a little boy had challenged him with complete defiance in his eyes, it was all Igneel could do from setting the forest on fire.

Now he felt like pounding his head against the nearest tree until it fell over, then repeating the process until the whole forest was leveled, but it would do him, and Natsu, no good. It was his fault he had gotten angry and now he had begun to worry that Natsu thought otherwise.

The look on his face before Igneel had turned away…the dragon wanted nothing more than to forget that look, but he knew it was impossible. He refused to close his eyes for more than half a moment because otherwise the look on Natsu's face, the look of utter defeat and sadness and betrayal, would plague the inside of his eyelids.

Igneel took a deep breath, searching for his son's scent, and rounded a few more trees until he found a spot that had his scent all over it. It had changed from the pure scent of the forest from before; Natsu now smelled like leaves, water, ash, and smoke, probably all from being in the river and lake for so long and from being around him and fire so much.

The scent was still fairly fresh; he had been there in the past few hours. Igneel took another deep breath of the spot, deducing that Natsu had been in that spot all night from how strong the scent was. He frowned slightly as something else found its way into his nostrils and took a few small sniffs around the area just to be sure he hadn't imagined it.

It was the smell of…rosemary? Why on _Earthland_ was rosemary in the forest? No, it wasn't just the smell of rosemary; something was there that smelled like rosemary, but the actual plant was nowhere to be seen. What smelled like rosemary? Not animals, or even humans for that matter. Maybe a certain type of monster? Though it must not be very menacing if it smelled like such a docile plant.

Even so, Igneel was disconcerted. From what he could tell, the rosemary smelling thing was with Natsu, and he didn't know how trustful such a pretty smelling thing was. Igneel continued to follow the scent of his son.

* * *

><p>Bell laughed as Natsu splashed around in the river, soaking nearby plants and trees while making a ruckus. Of course he was doing this for a "reason". He had said that he'd attract the attention of the frogs by splashing around in the river and then asking them to take them to their king to apologize once again. But to Bell it just looked like he was drowning in foot deep water.<p>

A fish went flying and almost hit her. She swerved out of the way, but its flailing managed to clip her and send her spiraling into a bush. Hearing laughter, she popped back out to see Natsu laughing outright at her. Puffing up her cheeks, she was about to yell something back that he wouldn't understand, but was cut off by a loud croak.

At seeing the large frogs hopping up the river she ducked back under the leaves of the bush and peeked out the bottom to watch the encounter. Natsu, confused of where his friend had gone, was looking around for the small girl when the frogs finally took notice of him.

"Ribbit! Ribbit!" one said to him and he struggled to release his pink head from the bush he was looking in, which was at least two feet away from the actual bush Bell was hiding in. The girl shook her head at her friend's idiocy.

Taking in the frogs that were demanding something in frog language, Natsu stood straight and rose his chin up high so that he was a couple inches taller than the frogs. Then coughed into his hand nervously and looked around for Bell once again.

Bell slapped her hand to her forehead; who would have thought that Natsu _ever_ got shy? But there he was, with two impatient frogs standing before him and him fumbling for words. He pressed his fingertips together as he stumbled his sentences around.

"U-um, would you guys—frogs, I mean, would you, uh, m-mind letting me talk to the frog-guy with the, er, the crown again? M-maybe?" He looked at the frogs with a hopeful smile and worried eyes.

The frogs looked at each other, having gotten the message no matter how fumbled it was. One nudged the other and the other tipped his head a bit. They both turned into a huddle and started ribbiting to each other in quick tones. Bell was unimpressed as they were just saying "ribbit" back and forth to each other even in their own language.

As they continued to talk, no longer even remembering the boy near them, Natsu edged over to them and leaned down so he was in the huddle too. Bell did another facepalm.

Eventually, the frogs noticed the boy and looked up at him in confusion and annoyance. Natsu answered with a bright smile. The two looked at each other, remembering his request, and nodded. One began to hop off as the other gestured for Natsu to follow.

With their backs turned, Bell zipped out from her hiding place and into Natsu's pink hair. Realizing that something had landed on his head, Natsu looked up and ended up dumping the girl back onto his shoulder. In frustration, she kicked him slightly to catch his attention then made frantic motions to follow the frogs.

Natsu just smiled, not knowing what she was saying but glad he'd found his friend again. Finally, she climbed back onto his head, grabbed a few tufts of hair and yanked them forward hard enough to throw him off balance and land face first into the dirt. The frogs looked back at him in confusion, wondering why the boy was eating mud and not following them.

When Natsu looked up with shock pasted on his face, he was covered in mud. The frogs ribbited to him and he quickly hopped after them on all fours. Pleased, the frogs continued up stream, only checking to make sure the boy was following them every once and a while.

They passed other creatures: deer, squirrels, rabbits, and even a pack of coyote's. Natsu was fascinated with how the frogs seemed to know all the species and how they interacted, some taking snaps at the creatures and others sniffing them in greeting.

He made sure to take a big whiff of every animal that came close enough, partially to say hello in their strange animal language and partially to remember the scents that each of the animals had. Glad that he'd be able to go back to Igneel knowing more than he had when he left, Natsu continued to follow the frogs.

But his smile fell as the thought came back to him that Igneel might not forgive him in the first place. He shook his head, taking a pause in his hopping. He was getting ahead of himself. He still hadn't gotten forgiveness from the frog king.

At a soft chime from Bell, Natsu's head snapped back up, a look of determination in his eyes and his mouth set in a straight line. Quickly, he caught up to the frogs and even passed them for a minute before realizing that he had no idea where he was going. Stopping to turn and ask where he was going, he didn't get the chance as the two frogs rammed into him, sending them all back into the mud and setting a few other frogs around them to ribbiting laughter.

Natsu was surprised. Other frogs? Raising his head, he realized that a large frog had hopped right up to them with its front legs crossed as a human would. Natsu blinked, confused for a moment before noticing the crown on its head.

"Ah! King Frog!" he shouted, jumping to his feet and letting the mud drip off of him in large clumps. If he had an eyebrow and knew how to arch it properly, the Frog King would have raised it. Suddenly turning nervous again, Natsu wrung his muddy palms and looked off to the side where other frogs were watching in either amusement or irritation.

Rolling her eyes, Bell rustled through the boy's hair a moment till she reached his ear and whispered something into his ear. Unfortunately, Natsu couldn't understand what she was trying to say, but he got the point of her trying to talk to him and stood straighter with his hands at his sides and eyes on the King Frog.

"Ah, Mr. Frog…"

* * *

><p>HOW FAST CAN A LITTLE BOY WALK?! Igneel was fuming in his search for his son. He had walked all the way to the stream and was now going up it, growling at the animals that were trying to get a drink and glaring at every plant that dared to grow in his path.<p>

_No One_ got in the way of the Great Igneel when he was searching for his son! Of course, thinking this got him to calm down again. Now he was merely glowering while he panicked for the hundredth time on the inside.

Was Natsu avoiding him on purpose? Why did he come back to the stream? Was it to challenge the Frog King again?

Now the panic was evident on Igneel's scaly face. Natsu was beaten badly the last time they had fought, and that was the King going easy on him. What if the frog decided not to go easy and hurt him even worse?

Natsu still had a broken arm, didn't he? What if he hurt it even worse? What would they do? What _could_ they do? Bring him to a human village and beg them to help? Pft, the Great Igneel doesn't beg _humans_ for help. Take him to Grandine and beg _her_ for help? Maybe… That is, if there was any of Natsu to heal by that time.

Igneel's pace quickened to the point where he nearly crushed a bunny underfoot. He didn't even care as it shouted profanities after him in rabbit. He just needed to get to his son before something bad happened to him.

Finally—_finally_—Igneel caught a strong whiff of him. Then he heard the boy's voice. He was talking. Igneel never thought he'd be so happy to hear someone _talking_ in his entire life. But as he was about to round one of the huge trees and whip his tail to send everything flying but his son, he paused.

He didn't know why, but he stopped to examine the situation before charging in. Natsu's voice was calm, brave, strong. But why would he…Igneel stopped his thoughts so that he could listen to his son and to peek around the tree to see what was going on.

Natsu was surrounded by frogs, but they weren't acting menacing at all and instead were listening carefully to what he was saying instead of noticing the huge dragon that was standing right behind them. Towering right before his son (who was covered in mud for some reason) was the King Frog that was listening just as intently as his subjects, though Igneel doubted that he actually understood anything that Natsu was saying and if he was then he would be forgetting it two seconds after he heard it. Honestly, frogs were so stupid.

Even so, they were all still as Natsu spoke to them, at least pretending to listen to him as he…apologized? Wait, what did Natsu have to apologize for? But as he listened, he understood.

"Mr. Frog King, I'm sorry that I beat up the other frog guys. It was mean and it was a bad reason. I didn't think that I was being mean, I just wanted to learn how to get stronger and so I wanted to fight other people. But Igneel told me that I was fighting for a bad reason, so I'm sorry that I was being mean."

The frogs ribbited quietly to each other, gossiping as humans would, but the King Frog didn't move an inch.

"And I'm also sorry that I fought you."

This surprised quite a few, even the King himself.

"I had beat up the other frogs and thought I was really strong, like Igneel, and that I could fight anything and win! But I was wrong, and it was wrong to fight you too. You didn't do anything and you were just fighting for your friends while I wanted your crown." Natsu grimaced and, though he couldn't see the boy's face very well from his angle, Igneel could see the regret in his form.

He stood tall and strong, but he was wringing his hands and he would look down at his toes every so often. Igneel didn't want to brag—well, yes he did—but he was very proud of his son right then.

"So, I-I wanted to ask if you'd forgive me for being mean to you guys. I promise I won't fight any frogs ever again."

The frogs looked delighted at this solemn swear and looked to their King for approval. The King was silent for a while before pointing to the golden hat upon his head.

Natsu shook his head. "I don't want your crown anymore. I promise not to fight over something like that again too."

Finally, the Frog King was satisfied and nodded with a slimy smile. The frogs cheered and Natsu let out a sigh of relief before smiling brightly at them all. But as the frogs cheered, the boy suddenly stopped and started sniffing the air.

Igneel felt his pride soar as Natsu sniffed around, obviously having caught his scent until he turned and they locked eyes. Ignoring the partying frogs all around them, Natsu felt his eyes fill with tears, somehow incredibly happy and sad all at the same time and unable to stop the leak. "I-Igneel…"

The dragon, in turn, felt his own eyes sting as he leaned his head down and smiled widely at his son. He chuckled slightly at the face of slight hope the boy was making. "Natsu."

As if it was a word of acceptance, Natsu ran to his father until he had crashed into his side and was crying into his scales. "I-Igneel! I-I'm s-sorry! I didn't want y-you to get mad at m-me!"

The dragon smiled sadly at the boy's reaction and sniffed a bit, though he would deny forever that he was close to crying as well. "No, Natsu, _I'm_ sorry." There it goes. _Whoosh_! His pride was gone forever. But somehow, he was okay with that. "I got mad at you for a stupid reason and even told you not to come home. I was being stupid, and a terrible father."

"N-no, Igneel! Y-you're the b-best father ever!"

Igneel only chuckled again in response. "No, I know that I was being terrible. I shouldn't have yelled at you and I'm sorry that I did. I'm being a bad example for you and I shouldn't have gotten mad. I was just worried for you in that fight. I didn't want you to get seriously hurt."

Natsu raised his pick locks from the dragon's scaly hide so they could look at each other in the eyes again. "I-Igneel…"

Suddenly, the dragon remembered about the boy's broken arm. "Ah, how's your arm? Does it feel bad? Is it bent at all?" He cursed himself for not checking sooner, but as Natsu raised his arm and showed that it looked like nothing had happened, the dragon questioned if he had imagined the break.

"No, look! My friend Bell fixed it for me! She did this pretty sparkily thing and taa daa! I'm all better! She helped me find dinner too; she's really nice and glowy and pretty. You should meet each other! Bell! Bell, this is my—huh?" Natsu ran his hands around in his pink locks a few times, as if searching for something that was supposed to be there, but came up empty.

He started looking around in the bushes and gazing up to the treetops, looking for "Bell". "Bell? Bell, where did you go? Bell?"

Igneel started slightly; if "Bell" was his friend, did that mean… "Natsu, come here a moment." When the boy complied, the dragon took a large whiff of him, making him giggle slightly. Most of him smelt like ash, nature, and mud, but there was the strong scent of rosemary that came from his hair. "Natsu, does this friend of yours smell like rosemary?"

The boy cocked his head in confusion. "What's…rose-mary smell like?"

Igneel shook his head. "What was Bell like? Was she an animal of some sort?"

Natsu shook his head fervently. "No! She's like me!"

Like him? "Bell is a human?"

Natsu frowned. "Well…no…she's smaller than me, and she glows and she looks different and has pretty wings, kind of like a moth's or a butterfly's!"

Igneel started to look around too. No…Natsu's friend couldn't be…a fairy? But hardly anyone ever even saw them; what would give a fairy reason to approach Natsu? He watched his son look around in the bushes a while longer as he pondered over this strange event and how his son just seemed to attract the oddities of the world.

Finally, he shook his head. Fairies just weren't real. Maybe Natsu had tripped on a patch of rosemary and just didn't realize it and had met…something that he'd mistaken for a tiny person. There was just no way that a fairy could be real.

Finally, when Natsu was getting tired of searching for the tiny, glowing girl, Igneel offered to make him lunch, which he quickly agreed to. When Natsu asked where Bell could be as he chewed on the rabbit that had been so rude as to call such terrible names at the Great Igneel, the dragon merely cast a look into the forest, hoping to catch a glimpse of light. Seeing none, he rested his head on his claws.

"I'm sure she's just…busy."

* * *

><p>Alsarnia: U-uhm, h-hi again, everyone.<br>Fans: -start to attack again-  
>Alsarnia: -pulls out Ninja Kunai, Trusty Sledgehammer, and Debate Sword- Back! Back I say!<br>Fans: -sated with the new chapter…for now-  
>Alsarnia: -ahem- okay, I really<em> am<em> sorry for the long update for a normal size chapter I wanted to put more in, but I couldn't without putting in a cliffhanger and I dislike it when others do that and don't update, like, the next day. It kind of tears me apart from the inside out, so nope.  
>Natsu: Glad to know you don't want to turn us inside out.<br>Happy: I don't think she means it literally.  
>Lucy: Wait, wait, wait, Natsu.<br>Natsu: -blinks- yes?  
>Lucy: You made friends with a<em> fairy<em> when you were a kid?  
>Natsu: -grabs chapter and scans it with wide eyes- What? What? Who? Where? Who's a fairy?<br>Everyone: -collective facepalm-  
>Happy: Natsu? What do you think Bell was?<br>Natsu: -blinks and smiles- a tiny, glowy person who has wing magic, like you Happy!  
>Lucy: Did no one ever tell you what fairies look like?<br>Natsu: We're fairies.  
>Lucy: No, not like the guild, but the actual creatures.<br>Natsu: -scoffs- No, obviously. No one knows what they look like. If they did then we'd know if they had tails or not.  
>Lucy: -works mouth but nothing comes out-<br>Alsarnia: XD He got you there!  
>Happy: Did Natsu just say something smart?<br>Natsu: REALLY? What was it?!  
>Happy: Nevermind.<br>Alsarnia: -sighs- Hey, why don't we answer reviews now?  
>Lucy: Good idea.<br>Alsarnia: To Haruna Akio: Heehee, yup, as they say "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree"!  
>Lucy: To Shadowhuntersbloodyfist: We're glad this got you thinking! That's always a good sign when someone is reading something. I hope you enjoy the rest of it!<br>Natsu: To Wildcatshadow: D$*(WJHDFE(SHCS*(#OAS )!NF! I'M OUT OF CHARACTER?!  
>Alsarnia: Yeah…I kinda expected that…but thank you for the review on my work too, I'll try to slow things down in later chapters. Ah, I think a little of that will be shown in this chapter ;)<br>Natsu: WAIT, WHA—  
>Happy: MOVING ON! To ollussa: We're having a democratic vote soon to decide whether we should put Lucy in one of the chapters later on: it's a decision between staying as cannon as we can, or putting some NaLu fluff in.<br>Lucy: That's still creepy to think about…  
>Alsarnia: I'm on the NaLu side in case anyone's wondering. To PINKhairedBADASS: Heehee, Natsu's adorable as a kid. And who couldn't love dragons?<br>Lucy: To uzumaki no kage: Nice name, what's it mean? Well…I suggested rabbits, but Alsarnia owns two pet rabbits and said that would be awkward for her to write. Plus, she drew some cute pictures of a chibi Natsu and chibi frogs fighting and we couldn't get the image out of our heads after that. Thus was born the frog battle.  
>Natsu: To Yuu3: -chuckles- to yuu…<br>Alsarnia: Just get on with it…  
>Natsu: Heheh, that frog was stupider than me—<br>Happy: That might be stretching it.  
>Natsu: I CAN TALK RIGHT AT LEAST!<br>Lucy: Sure, we'll go with that.  
>Natsu: AHEM, yes, me being a dragon beginning in the form of a human is the basis of this story, unlike others that usually just have me being a human that was found in the woods by Igneel. And yes, we plan on having this go for a long time before 7.7.777 comes up, which means that Alsarnia needs to get off her lazy butt and type more.<br>Alsarnia: I'm busy!  
>Happy: To xxenchantedxx: Voila! Your wish has come true via the Happy angel!<br>Alsarnia: Sure…To PrideViola: Mmm-hmm, I'm going to have the scar thing happen later. It's actually going to be a big point in the story and will be more important than people usually take it for. I think his scar is one of those things where it's never really mentioned but it turns out to be incredibly important later, but why exactly is going to be a surprise ;)  
>Lucy: To AmericasJacket: Thank you for the compliments! I hope you enjoy this chapter!<br>Natsu: To PurpleDiva888: Taa Daa, the Happy Angel has answered your wishes!  
>Happy: See! It works! To MissSexyRain: We've gone over it a couple times and Alsarnia has figured that it was too fast and she should've put more descriptions in the actual battle and Igneels feelings through it, so that's how it is! I think it's funny that Natsu got beat up by a frog XD<br>Alsarnia: O.O You remembered everything I said earlier?  
>Happy: I'm the Happy Angel, I can do anything.<br>Alsarnia: Oooookkkkaaayyy… To Echelon9: That's great that I have fellow Natsu-is-a-dragon theorists! I'm actually trying to keep it open that Natsu could be his bio. Son or could be a different egg. How is the Great Igneel supposed to remember every female dragon he gets together with? I didn't make it so clear that I left it open in the first chapter, but when I put that up I was considering just keeping this a one-shot, so I might fix that later.  
>Lucy: To Lady Violet Fire: Heehee, yeah, their father son relationship is super cute!<br>Natsu: To KitsuneDragon: Cooooooool! Hey guys, do you think we could get this as an episode?!  
>Happy: That doesn't seem likely…<br>Natsu: Awww…  
>Happy: To OrangeSkye2772: Huzzuh!<br>Alsarnia: To Queen of Narnia49: I tell him that all the time, but he just doesn't listen to me.  
>Happy: Hey!<br>Alsarnia: Haha, yeah, I try to be very critical about my writing so I can work to be better. Bonzai! And yes, I really didn't want to make everything all rainbows and lollipops in their relationship. It's just like any other father son relationship, they love each other deeply, but there are sometimes when they disagree and there are bumps in their relationship.  
>Lucy: To bee15526: Here ya go!<br>Alsarnia: Okay, quick question: Who actually reads my authors notes?  
>Happy: I think they just scroll to look for their review answers then go to the actual story.<br>Aslarnia: -shrugs- that's fine, I do these just for entertainment  
>Lucy: Alright! We hope you liked this chapter and that you'll leave a review! Have a nice day!<p> 


	7. The Dragon Council-Part 1

Alsarnia: Helllllllo adoring fans!~~  
>LucyNatsu/Happy: -punches host in face-  
>Lucy: You left us here again!<br>Natsu: And didn't feed us again!  
>Alsarnia: You know, you're not required to stay in this –now two story!- shack all the time. And you're not my pets! Of course I don't feed you!<br>Lucy: -pauses then runs out the door-  
>Happy: What about me? Aren't <em>I<em> a pet?  
>Natsu: You're a cat, Happy.<br>Happy: Oh yeah!  
>Alsarnia: -blinks, shakes head- never mind. So, new news first! I've been college shopping and working on writing my next book, as well as MY FREAKING COMPUTER BREAKING DOWN.<br>Natsu: what's a collage?  
>Happy: Nothing you need worry about<br>Natsu: -looks skeptical then runs out after Lucy- Luce knows! I'll ask her!  
>Happy: -turns to Alsarnia- guess it's just you and me now<br>Alsarnia: looks like it. At least now we can concentrate with the weirdoes out of the room.  
>AlsarniaHappy: -pulls out spectacles and scholars cap to put them on- Indeed!  
>Alsarnia: Second announcement! Thanks to all the wonderful reviews you've given us, I was able to afford a second story!<br>Happy: Natsu made himself sick running up and down the spiral staircase so much.  
>Alsarnia: How does he even manage to do that…<br>Happy: Nobody knows.  
>Natsu: -drags Lucy back in- found her!<br>Lucy: -looks at Happy and Alsarnia- what are you wearing?  
>HappyAlsarnia: -hides glasses and hats- Nothing!  
>Lucy: -looks skeptical-<br>Natsu: Why did I bring her back again?  
>Alsarnia: For the review response?<br>Natsu: Oh yeah!  
>Lucy: Fine, since I know you can't do this without me anyways.<br>Happy: Sure we can! Watch, To—  
>Lucy: TO wolfeclipse25! Bell is mysterious, I'm wondering exactly HOW Natsu managed to meet a fairy in the first place…<br>Natsu: -shrugs-  
>Happy: -ahem- To Lady Violet Fire, Heheh, looks like Alsarnia messed up again –sniggers- Aye! But I get to answer your review this time! Natsu is a lucky kid!<br>Alsarnia: To PrideViola, Ah-…-blushes- Well…no…it's not Tinkerbell…I really just came up with the first fairy name that came to mind and that was it and I didn't want to change it because I thought it fit so well…  
>Happy: -sniggers-<br>Alsarnia: HUSH YOU!  
>Natsu: To ollussa, Whoop! We're the exception! –what's that mean?- Heheh, Lucy this story's all about ME!<br>Lucy: -rolls her eyes- To Yuu3, Oh dear, Alsarnia, I think you killed this poor reader.  
>Alsarnia: BREATHE DANG IT, BREATHE!<br>Lucy: …they're probably not actually—  
>Alsarnia: DON'T YOU GIVE UP ON ME DANG IT!<br>Lucy: …right, well, yes, Bell's here the whole time Natsu's in this forest, but she doesn't ever appear again. Alsarnia doesn't like OC's all that much and is trying to keep any away or keep their parts minimal. The story is focused on Natsu and Igneel, the canon characters.  
>Happy: To MissSexyRain, Aye! I AM cute!<br>Alsarnia: She meant the chapter  
>Happy: Are you saying I'm not cute?<br>Alsarnia: No, I—ugh, never mind, To elex88, THANK YOU, since I didn't mean it anyways…  
>Natsu: To SoMinniacCRBNlol, WHAT! BURNING MUST BE DONE!<br>Alsarnia: WAIT NATSU! –he stops at the door- Thanks for trying to warn me about copyright, but I actually read Fleeting Time and I can promise you that none of it is copywrited off of me.  
>Lucy: To Wildcatshadow, good to hear we're on track –gives a thumbs-up-<br>Happy: To uzumaki no kage, Scary name! Pretty cool though.  
>Alsarnia: -rolls her eyes- To…uh… Guest, nice name, dummmmmmm…nope :D<br>Natsu: To Natsu kawaii XP, What's kawaii?  
>Alsarnia: It means….devilishly handsome…<br>Natsu: Oh, okay. Spoilers. And…WHAT?  
>Alsarnia: he means no for the second question.<br>Natsu: WHAT? With who even?  
>Everyone: -silence-<br>Natsu: ANSWER ME!  
>Lucy: -ahem- To SioQu, Alsarnia grieves.<br>Happy: Heehee, To LuckyLifeSmile, Alsarnia hasn't been swayed either way on the Nalu topic yet, so there still might be a chance for it.  
>Alsarnia: To, um, Guest number2, Thank you very much!<br>Natsu: humph, fine, no one answers me, huh? Fine then…To Gazlover12-Canada, Taadaa!  
>Lucy: To Pink Pickles, It IS pretty darn cute, huh?<br>Happy: To M, Hello!  
>Alsarnia: To Harumi Dragonia, I think our connection got broken up at the end, I didn't quite catch that ;) Well, thank you for the compliments!<br>Natsu: To FT Fangirl, YES, THANK YOU :D pft, I can't die, I'm a DRAGON!  
>Alsarnia: sort of<br>Natsu: SORT OF! :D  
>Happy: -jumps on the fish- I love you person! –munches on fish-<br>Alsarnia: yeah, he's not going to answer any more of these…  
>Lucy: To L, um, -points at Alsarnia- blame her.<br>Alsarnia: To Rinny-Senpai 32, Yup, I'm ending at where Natsu joins Fairy Tail, which is kind of a long ways from here…But I'm all determined again :D  
>Natsu: To SoulMore, LAMP!<br>Lucy: -facepalm- To Sque-Fangirl, Well, it's mostly Natsu here, so here you go!  
>Alsarnia: To riseblader, DOCTOR, WE'VE GOT ANOTHER ONE!<br>Natsu: To twilightdreamers, HANDSOME, HANDSOME I SAY!  
>Lucy: To .be. , I'm curious too, Alsarnia?<br>Alsarnia: No comment, you'll have to wait and see. To karmadella1234, love you! ;D Wow, that was a long-winded review response, but now on with the show!  
>Lucy: Story<br>Alsarnia: Story!  
>Natsu: Fanfiction<br>Alsarnia: Fanfiction!  
>Happy: -eating- Fish!<br>Alsarnia: Fish!...wait, what?  
>Lucy: Fairy Tail © Hiro Mashima<p>

* * *

><p>Igneel paced. Natsu watched with something akin to amusement. The King Frog sat and stared at a rock it <em>swore<em> had moved an hour ago.

The dragon turned and began walking back on his pacing route, much to the young boy's glee. He had _actually_ worn a path into the ground from where he paced. Natsu didn't know why his father was pacing and looking more worried recently, but knew whatever it was, it was also the reason why Igneel had been fidgety and snippety for the past couple of days.

After the incident at the beginning of the month, Igneel had been more careful around him, always afraid that he'd hurt the boy's feelings again. Natsu, in turn was getting used to the fact that his father was a snappish grouch sometimes, especially when he was worried-or pacing.

Natsu had tried to make a game out of his father's comments, getting him more and more riled up, but after Igneel came back and apologized worriedly Natsu decided not to egg him on anymore. At least, not to the point where Igneel would get sad.

"Igneel, what are you doing?"

"Pacing."

"Why?"

"Because I'm thinking."

"Why?"

"Because I'm worried."

"Why?"

Igneel growled out the corner of his mouth and, though he smiled, Natsu knew he'd have to back off soon. "Because…I need to go for a short trip."

Natsu tried not to let his sadness at the comment show, but failed miserably. "What? We're leaving the forest already? But we just made friends with the frog monsters!"

Igneel sighed deeply, laid down near Natsu, then stood back up to pace again, nerves so frayed he couldn't stand still. "No, we're not leaving here yet, don't worry. Actually, I was wondering if you'd like to stay with the frogs for the next week; what do you say?"

Natsu looked confused. "What do you mean?"

Igneel groaned. How was he supposed to explain this to a little kid without freaking him out? "Natsu, have you ever heard of a sleepover before?"

"What's a 'sleepover'?"

Well, that screwed that idea. "Well, that's fine, because it doesn't matter anyway."

"Okay."

Igneel gave him a look to see if the boy was joking, but Natsu merely smiled innocently back. "Fine then. You're going to go spend the week with the frogs and they're going to watch after you while I'm gone."

The frog's head snapped up at this, accompanied by a frantic "Ribbit?!" Remembering his mission, the frog looked back down to find the rock was gone.

Natsu looked almost distressed now. "You're leaving me again?"

Igneel moved faster than Natsu had ever seen him move to lean down so they were nearly nose to nose "I'm _not_ leaving you, Natsu; I would _never_ do that." They both winced at the remembrance that he nearly _did_, but it passed as quickly as it came. "Natsu, you are my son and I would never just leave you. I don't _want_ to go now, but I _have_ to."

Natsu nodded and sniffed away any trances of a near cry. "Where are you going?" he asked.

Igneel laid down, tired of pacing, and Natsu climbed onto his snout so the dragon had to go cross-eyed to see him. Displeased with even the thought, Igneel grumbled, "The Dragon Council."

Natsu let out a long "ooh" and they fell silent for a while. The frog still searching for the rock in the bushes nearby.

"Igneel?"

"Hmm?"

"What's a council?"

The dragon fought not to roll his eyes. How to describe a council? "Well, when there are a bunch of dragons, or people, in one place, in this case Earthland, the dragons or people will choose powerful creatures to tell them what to do."

Natsu wrinkled his nose. "Why would they do that?"

Igneel did the same, making Natsu bounce and giggle as he crinkled his snout. "I'm not sure. People like to look up to people, see power they know they can't have. They like to be bossed around too. The same goes for dragons, to a lesser extent though. And the ones who are in charge like to boss other people around, so they become rude, bossy, high and mighty." His face fell as he said this.

Natsu frowned. "Igneel, are you in the "council"?"

Igneel crossed his eyes to look at his son in shock. "Why do you say that?" he asked, thinking Natsu had surmised this from his personality.

Natsu grinned, showing off his sharp canines. "You said the dragons choose the most powerful to be in the council, right? And no one's more powerful than you!"

Igneel guffawed, nearly throwing Natsu off him. Of course that's why; Igneel _was_, of course, a very powerful dragon but he felt prided that even his son could recognize this. "Yes, Natsu, I am on the Dragon Council."

He wasn't the most powerful dragon on the dragon council, third from the top actually, but may he be burned alive by his own flames before he admitted something like that to his own son.

Natsu's eyes widened as his suspicions were confirmed. "And you're the best, right? You're like _King_ frog, right?"

They both looked to said frog at the same time, seeing his back legs flailing out of a bush in an attempt to get free of the shrub. "No, I'm certainly nothing like him."

Natsu looked a little panicked again. "And you're leaving me with him for a week?"

Igneel scoffed. "There's really nothing I can do about it, son. I can't leave you here alone in the forest for a week and the only others I know are dragons, who will also be there at the council. The frogs can help you find fruits and plants to eat until I come back. _Do not_ try to eat any animal raw."

"Not even the fish?" the boy asked with a frown.

"Not even the fish; I don't want you to get sick while I'm gone."

Of course, it might have been different if Natsu could make fire yet, but he couldn't. Igneel had been trying to teach Natsu fire magic with little to no success. The boy could get a spark sometimes, but nothing more than that. Igneel had tried to teach him fire magic the same way he had before, but it was doing little good. Telling the boy it was a life he had to create and fuel did nothing to help and seemed to only frustrate him further.

Natsu had proved to be a smart child in his own way. He got distracted far too easily, but when Igneel could get him to sit and listen to him, Natsu picked up on things fairly quickly. His eating fire so quickly from when he was born was proof of that. But he always seemed to have trouble with the simple things. He learned his letters quickly, but had trouble stringing them together into words, but only in the human language. When it came to dragon script, the boy was already reading small words, but he just couldn't do the same with regular letters.

He could eat fire by the branch, but couldn't seem to make his own. It frustrated Igneel to no end, but he refused to say that anything was wrong with his son. Just like he also refused to admit that he was so old he couldn't remember how he first made his flames. If Natsu could make his fire then he could just cook or set fire to any food he gathered, both cooking and decontaminating the meal at the same time.

But, since he couldn't and food was decidedly an important factor needed for life, Igneel had to find someone to watch over his son. And, sadly, the only candidates were the frogs. Igneel was loathe to leave his son in the core of a bunch on amphibians, but he really had little choice.

"Why can't I come with you?" Natsu asked as he slid off Igneel's nose and went chasing after something.

"Well, that's because…you're human, Natsu."

The boy looked up at him blankly. "Uh-huh."

"And this council meeting is for dragons."

"Uh-huh."

"…and you're a human."

"Uh-huh."

Annoyed that the boy couldn't just pick up what he was saying, Igneel tried not to growl. "Humans aren't allowed at the Dragon Council."

Understanding flashed in the boy's eyes. "Ooooh!" Natsu frowned and turned away to observe the turtle that was trying to get as far away as possible from the frog. Igneel frowned too, sensing something was bothering his son.

He shuffled forward so his eye was even with his boy, though Natsu turned his head slightly so Igneel couldn't see his face. "Natsu, what's wrong?"

Thankfully, when Natsu turned back, the boy didn't look ready to cry, but he was obviously bothered. "How come I'm not a dragon?" Natsu asked sadly poking the turtle with a stick now.

_Why indeed_? "You're just not. Your parents were…human, so that means you have to be a human as well."

Natsu pouted. "Why did my parents have to be human? Why couldn't they be dragons? Why can't _you_ be my parent?"

_If only you knew_, Igneel thought, but cleared his throat. "I'm your father, isn't that enough?"

Natsu looked torn for a moment before picking up the turtle. "Yes…well, no…sort of. It's okay, but I wish you were my parent and I'm a dragon. I could do magic like you and could come to the meeting with you and could cook and—"

"But you can't," Igneel cut him off, not coldly, but simply, wrapping up Natsu's thoughts before he could work himself up.

Natsu flinched and flipped the turtle around in his hands, tickling the creatures feet so it tried to bat his little fingers away. "Yeah…I can't."

Igneel sighed, making curls of smoke drift out of his nose and the warmth of his scales to increase, drawing Natsu closer. "No, you can't do magic like me, and you can't come to the meeting or cook by yourself yet, but, really, there's nothing wrong with that. It's not that fun to be a dragon anyways."

Igneel winced slightly and was glad Natsu was still distracted by the turtle. "You can't do magic like me, but someday your magic will be even better…maybe even better than mine. And when you get better at your magic you can cook your own food. And the council meetings? You wouldn't want to go if you knew what it is like. I certainly don't like it and wouldn't go if I didn't have to."

Natsu looked at Igneel with a frown. "Why not? Aren't you a council person-ow!" Natsu dropped the turtle, the creature having nipped his finger when he wasn't paying attention.

Igneel laughed as Natsu scowled and picked it back up, the animal hiding within its shell now. "It's not funny!"

"Sure it is; you're not _really_ hurt, are you?"

Natsu looked down at his finger, red but not bleeding. He frowned. "Well…no."

"Then it's funny!" Igneel laughed again and, slowly, Natsu began to giggle as well. Seeing that his son was happy and temporarily distracted by the turtle, Igneel decided it was time to leave. He _didn't_ want to leave, but if the third council member didn't show up, dragons would come searching for him and if they saw Natsu living with him they might think he was a normal human and try to kill him.

Igneel had thought for a while that he didn't want to risk it. Natsu couldn't even make his own fires yet; Igneel didn't think he was anywhere near ready to defend himself if any other monsters showed up. Igneel stood back up, feeling better than he had all week now that he'd talked to Natsu about what was happening. Though, the fact that he was leaving at all put a damper on things.

The dragon was surprised to find the King Frog standing only several feet away, staring at the turtle in Natsu's hands. Shaking his head slightly, he leaned down and bore his teeth at the frog, smoke rising from between his fangs as he gave his best glare to the animal.

"Watch. Him. Carefully," he said in a threatening voice.

The frog didn't move, but let out a shaky "R-ribbit." Nodding, Igneel glanced at Natsu once more before taking off, clearing the leafy canvas of branches in mere seconds before heading North East.

Natsu watched his father fly away with a bit of sadness. Immediately, he recognized the lonely feeling in his gut he had before when Igneel had been gone for a while, but this time it was softer, filled with the knowledge that his father would come back for him soon.

He looked back to the frog that was supposed to watch him for the next week and frowned. "Did you pee?"

The frog gave out an indignant croak before turning and heading back to the river. Shrugging and guessing that he was supposed to follow, Natsu headed after the frog, hoping that the turtle wouldn't bite him again.

When they got back into the river, the frog immediately dunked himself in, much to the interest of his subjects. Natsu, deciding the frog's shame was none of his business and not feeling up to playing at the moment, set the turtle down and leaned down to watch it crawl around.

He'd found the little creature a few days before along the riverside, being bullied by some frogs. Deciding this was a "good" reason to fight, he had stepped between the amphibians and reptile and threatened to defend the turtle should they mess with it again. No actual punches were thrown, the frogs got the message, but Natsu still felt proud of himself.

Seeing it as his first battle for good, he'd picked up the turtle and had kept it close since, to "protect" it, of course. The turtle _did_ seem fairly happy, and Igneel hadn't tried to eat it yet, so Natsu named it his second friend. Speaking of his friends—

There was a little tingling sound as Bell landed in his hair. He smiled and tried to look up at her. "Hi Bell!"

She gave a greeting before jumping off his head and onto the turtle's shell, using him as a seat. The day after he had gotten back to Igneel, Bell had appeared to him again by the river and had communicated to him that she didn't like dragons. He could see why, Igneel could be scary when he wanted to be. Natsu had resigned to the fact that he'd never be able to introduce Bell and Igneel and so just played and talked with whichever one was on hand.

He still couldn't understand a single word Bell said, but they both pretended he could and would have long conversations with each other, each just blabbing about whatever came to mind. Natsu had tried to get Turtle to join their conversations too, but Bell liked to pick on him too sometimes…and he bit him again. So Turtle was just there to be there.

The frogs had gotten interested once and one had tried to eat Bell. But with a flash of light and what looked like fireworks, the frog had been thrown into the river and Bell was left shouting angrily after him as his friends laughed. Natsu thought it was funny, but noted to never get Bell mad.

Bell seemed inclined to chatter for a while, so he picked up some leaves from a nearby bush and started feeding them to Turtle, who happily munched on them from his hands. Natsu was wondering why she talked so much when she finally stopped and looked at him expectantly. He dutifully nodded his head.

Gleeful and, sadly, inspired to keep talking, Bell kept chattering for a while. Natsu, bored with pretending to listen and feeding Turtle leaves, picked up a glob of mud and started rubbing it all over Turtle's shell, much to his ire. He tried to escape for a minute, but Natsu simply picked him up and set him back down closer so he could make a mud castle on the poor creature's back.

Bell huffed as she realized that Natsu wasn't listening to her at all and threw a little mud at him, which smeared down his face. This quickly escalated into a mud fight, which ended just as fast as Bell was buried, then expanded by Natsu to the frogs. With a cackle, the young boy ducked as a frog tried to shovel a large amount of mud on him, only to face plant into the river as he slipped.

As he came out the smell of the mud hit him sharply and surprisingly. He blinked for a moment before wiping it away and taking a deep breath. Little scents he'd never noticed before came to him with ease. Ew, did the frogs really smell like that?

The trees that were yards away from him gave an overpowering powdery scent, the leaves on the bush nearby stood out sweetly, Turtle had a subtle scent that was kind of like the frogs' but cleaner. He whipped his head around, making the mud in his hair fly everywhere and took another deep breath, fascinated by the new experience.

Something smelled weirdly earthy and made him sneeze. He closed his eyes and sniffed at the air, trying to locate the scent, when another ball of mud hit him smack in the face. Wanting to figure out the smell before resuming his play, Natsu flailed a little, yelling, "Stop! Stop! Stop!" The frogs all stopped what they were doing, either in mid-throw or otherwise, and looked toward the boy, who wiped the mud off his face and continued sniffing.

Back on land, he pressed his nose to the ground, then in the air, seeing which gave him a better taste, and followed it over to where Turtle and Bell were. He sniffed Turtle, who'd hid in his shell a while ago, but got the same scent as earlier. Then grabbed Bell, who protested in her tiny voice, and took a big whiff of her.

Yup, there was the earthy smell. He sniffed her again and she pushed him away, the action sort of creepy for the little fairy. Natsu let her go and tipped his head to the side in interest. "You smell funny, Bell. How come?"

The little fairy looked exasperated with the child, but shrugged anyways, unsure what he meant anyways.

Natsu got hit on the back of his head by a mud pile. He spun around, eyes burning excitedly as several of the frogs ganged up on one in particular. The frog that had thrown the mud looked horrified and tried to hop away, but didn't get far before Natsu managed to pin him down and stuff mud into his face.

The mud war was back on in that instant. Natsu was smiling excitedly, both at how Igneel wasn't there to tell him to take a bath, and over his new found smelling abilities. Before dunking another frog into the river he looked back over at Bell and Turtle happily. "I'm _never_ going to lose at hide-and-seek again!

* * *

><p>Alsarnia: And that was—<br>Everyone: -punches Alsarnia-  
>Alsarnia: OKAY THIS IS GETTING REALLY ANNOYING!<br>Natsu: -sniggers-It's so much fun!  
>Lucy: -whaps him on the back of the head-<br>Happy: Indeed!  
>Alsarnia: -ahem-and that was the latest chapter of "Father"<br>Natsu: -winds up to punch her again-  
>Alsarnia: NO! NOT THIS TIME! –runs up to the second story-<br>Natsu: You're not getting away!  
>Lucy: -shakes her head-So, I suppose I'm the one who has to tell everyone that Alsarnia has NO EXCUSE as to why she hasn't updated in months going on a year<br>Alsarnia: -upstairs-OW!  
>Natsu: HAHAHAHAHA!<br>{They come back down, Alsarnia's face smoking and Natsu looking very proud of himself}  
>Alsarnia: Yeah, pretty much. I'm kinda known for how quickly I jump from one fandom to another in my group of friends and for a while I couldn't work myself up enough to write this, then I felt bad about not writing it and put it off, then my computer broke down and it took me several months to get back online, and then I was thinking about putting up this story for adoption.<br>Happy: -gasps-You wouldn't!  
>Alsarnia: I almost did. Then, a MIRACLE happened.<br>Lucy: -deadpans-A miracle?  
>Alsarnia: -nods-a Tumblr miracle.<br>Everyone: -throws up their hands-  
>Alsarnia: Yup. I was on Tumblr. And somehow I ended up searching my own name. And I found that someone had made FANART of this fic!<br>Natsu: -starts laughing loudly-  
>Alsarnia: THERE IS NOTHING THAT CAN GET ME DOWN AFTER THIS AND I DECIDED I WOULD FINISH THIS FIC IF IT WAS THE LAST FANFICTION I WROTE!<br>Lucy: That's quite a statement  
>Happy: Aye!<br>Alsarnia: So yes, I'm already working on the next chapter. I honestly don't know how long this entire fic is going to be, but I can say it goes all the way up to Natsu being introduced to Fairytail. Also, I know this is now an AU, but it's still awesome.  
>Natsu: Come back next time to see me—<br>Lucy: Natsu, you're not in the next chapter.  
>Natsu: …what?<br>Happy: You're not in the next chapter, Natsu.  
>Natsu: -turns on Alsarnia- What?<br>Alsarnia: Yeah, I better run. See ya guys later!


	8. The Dragon Council-Part 2

Alsarnia: NO PUNCHING!  
>Natsu: -lowers his fist- Awww…<br>Lucy: -pats him on the back- You can get Gray later.  
>Natsu: I can be happy with that.<br>Happy: You took away Natsu's pants…  
>Natsu: -looks down- No she didn't?<br>Alsarnia: No, in the story.  
>Natsu: -confused- Why'd you take my pants?<br>Alsarnia: Because, honestly, it was weird. Where did you get the pants? How come you just had them? You couldn't get them out of an egg; it was just confusing. The only reason why I gave them to you at first in the first place was because I feel awkward even _writing_ about nudity.  
>Lucy: -pats Alsarnia in comfort- I understand, as a fellow novelist.<br>Alsarnia: -hugs Lucy while crying- You're the only one in these authors notes who truly understands me!  
>Happy+Natsu: Aye!<br>Lucy+Alsarnia: I_I'  
>Alsarnia: Right, well, thanks to your reviews, we were able to afford a stove and pantry so that the characters can now feed themselves instead of buying take-out all the time.<br>Lucy: That stuff isn't really good for you in large amounts.  
>Natsu: But it's so good!<br>Happy: I can cook my fish now! It's even yummier than before.  
>Lucy: Shouldn't we just get to the reviews now…<br>Natsu: I GET TO START! HAHAHA! To PrideViola, thanks for sticking with us this whole time! I don't know…Igneel would never tell me what happened at the councils –pouts-  
>Lucy: To ahuna67, I made sure to kick Alsarnia into gear this time, so here you go!<br>Alsarnia: To .be. , Indeed, God Bless! Yup, this one's part 2 and it's Igneel's point of view at the Dragon Council.  
>Happy: To Kudai Kage, Aye! We're back and ready to roll!<br>Alsarnia: So, yup. I made sure to get this done really fast so that I didn't start procrastinating again…  
>Natsu: -eating from the pantry-<br>Lucy: NO! –whacks him- That's the food for the next few days!  
>Natsu: Awww, but Happy's got a fish!<br>Happy: -eating a fish- It's yummy!  
>Alsarnia: -whacks him- NO!<br>Lucy: Fairy Tail © Hiro Mashima

* * *

><p>He'd just gotten there and he already wanted to leave. For one, he was worried about Natsu. The poor boy had only been in this world for a few months and Igneel had left him in the care of a bunch of frog monsters and a turtle. A bunch of <em>idiotic<em> frog monsters that seemed to _attract_ trouble, no less. As if the boy didn't draw enough by himself.

Igneel almost wanted to scratch his scales off with how much of a stupid decision that was, but really what else was he to do? He couldn't take Natsu with him for obvious reasons; he couldn't stay for obvious reasons; and there was no one else he could have left Natsu with.

For a while he had entertained the idea that he could drop Natsu off at a human household and have the boy pretend he was lost then come back and "kidnap" the child once the council was over, but that was far too much work and Natsu would probably give them away. He had no doubt the boy would end up telling the humans that he had a dragon for a father and that he was going to be picked up later when Igneel came back. And if that happened, they might move him and it would be a pain to go find the boy again, and Igneel just didn't want to bother with so much work. Not to mention if the boy started eating campfires and cooking fires the humans might think he was cursed or something equally as ridiculous.

In any case, Igneel also couldn't leave Natsu on his own. He was far too young and excitable, not to mention wouldn't be able to keep himself safe and fed on his own. Maybe if he was older, if he could create fire of his own already, it would be a different story. As it was, the child just couldn't yet and Igneel had to adjust.

Of course, there was really only one other creature in the world that he would even consider asking to watch Natsu, but seeing as that creature was a dragon and would also be at the dragon council, there was no way around it. Not to mention how he _really _didn't want to tell anyone about Natsu at all.

As he flew to the Dragon Council, he amused himself with the thought that he was being an overprotective father. Yes, amusing indeed. But surely it was for a good reason. If any other dragons thought that he was harboring a human then who knew what would happen to Natsu? Most likely the other dragons would react badly, angrily, and demand the boy's flesh charred and smoking in death.

Igneel wrinkled his nose, even as he caught the scent of other dragons, letting him know he was close to the mountain.

He wouldn't let that happen. Overprotective or not, he wouldn't let Natsu die. Be dragon in a human body, or human with a dragon soul, Natsu was his son and Igneel had taken him on and promised that no harm would come to him, and that was a promise he intended to keep.

There was a great gust of wind and the smell of ozone. Igneel rolled his eyes in the best way a dragon could. Great. _This _guy.

"Why Igneel, fancy seeing you here!"

Igneel looked at the other dragon out of the corner of his eyes, his wings not missing a beat as he flew through the air just a little bit faster, hoping to make it difficult for the other to stay even with him. Sadly, the other dragon kept pace easily. He supposed that he shouldn't have guessed any different since Arka was a Storm dragon of high marks.

He wasn't in the inner circle of the Council because of his rather rude and flabbergasting behavior, but he was a force to be trifled with. Of course, this was a fact that very few knew, Igneel being one of the few, since one of his eyes had been stolen. Apparently Arka was a very deep sleeper and the humans were far craftier than any gave them credit for. At least, that's his story. Every other dragon just choked it up to him being too lazy to take anyone seriously until after they managed to maim him.

As a testament to his strange behavior, somehow Arka had gotten it in his thick skull that he and Igneel were friends. To the point where, every year, the first dragon Igneel saw was Arka. Be it at the mountain or continents away from it, Arka was always the first dragon Igneel came across. Maybe there was a reason why everyone always saw Igneel as a grump. Because this unfathomable dragon always managed to work him up before he was able to so much as greet any others.

Igneel sucked in a breath, coming out as smoke that Arka didn't pick up the message. "Yes, fancy that. Seeing me here. At the _mandatory _yearly meeting."

Arka barked a laugh, something that was akin to a thunder-clap. "Ah, always the jokester Igneel, buddy. How was your year; how many villages did you decimate? Yaks picked up? Forests burned down? Did you manage to find a good volcano to hibernate in?"

"For the last time, I don't hibernate, you idiot. Only lesser dragons hibernate, of which I clearly am not. And, again, I can't seem to find the joy of destroying human villages."

Although the flames did always seem to take on a different picture every time and watching the little creatures scatter around, either screaming or trying to put out his flames was rather fun. Of course he never let it go uselessly. Anyone who burned he ate instead of littering their bodies around and wouldn't go chasing after survivors like some other rather nasty dragons.

At least he was respectable about village burning.

It wasn't always such a satisfactory sport though and he hadn't partaken in one in many years. Clearly, from the destruction he flew over, this wasn't the same for other dragons. Arka was one of those dragons.

"Well, I took down at least two villages a month. Quite a nice job as well. Maybe one or two got away, but that's always nice, let them spread the word about how ferocious and powerful we are, you know? That's what I think anyway! HAHAHAHAHA! Seeing those houses explode with lightning! Now _that's_ a good time!"

Igneel grunted, slowing his wing beats as he came in for a landing at an outlying mountain. The mountain where they held their council meetings was honesty boring. It was the largest in the world with a long string of mountains in every direction, sides so steep it was impossible for humans to settle.

Most of it was above the tree line and so was empty of caves and creatures other than the occasional monster that would clear out before it became some dragons dinner. Most of the dragons would eat a hearty meal before coming to the meeting, or would cockily hunt in the nearby forests during the few breaks they had.

The top of the highest mountain, the one in the middle of the rings, had been dug out so that there was an empty cavern one could fly into. Only the highest of the Dragon Council were allowed in there, where their loud voices would echo out of the holes in the mountain and reach to the other dragons who came to listen to the events of the dragons.

Arka would have to alight on a different mountain and wait for the high Dragon Council to begin the meeting. And, however nice that was, the company that would replace him was possibly even more infuriating than the first dragon.

"Igneel, how are you?"

Igneel paused, locking his claws into a particularly stable rock so he could look over his shoulder at the dragon that was coming up on them fast. Ah, now here was a dragon he actually didn't mind talking to. How many of those were there? Two? Three? Surely no more than three.

He nearly sighed in relief and nodded to Arka as a farewell before leaping back into the air to join her. "Hello Grandine. The same as ever in these thousand-odd years."

She seemed to smirk. "Miserable and annoyed with creatures of every kind?"

Igneel chuckled. "You know me too well."

She gave off a slight purr. "You're not all that hard to read, you know. Though you are right if no one else can see that. You seem more stressed than usual though, is something bothering you?"

Yes. He had left his own son in the hands of the possibly most idiotic creatures on the planet for the next week. "No. Just Arka. He irritates me more than anyone else for some reason, yet insists on following me whenever I have a moment alone."

"You can never tell with that one, I will admit. I wonder what he wants?"

Igneel grunted. "So do I."

Grandine was quiet for a moment and Igneel looked at her curiously. She was usually such a social butterfly, fluttering from one dragon to another, getting on everyone's good side and never pausing in her talk. Igneel wondered if they knew each other enough that she didn't need to keep talking with him, but then doubted that. Did dragons even have friends? Probably not.

"Have you gotten over that human-liking syndrome you've been in for the past couple hundred years yet?" he asked gruffly, trying to get her to talk again

She frowned; he couldn't tell whether it was at what he said or at him. "No. I don't see why everyone has to hate and kill humans so much. What's the point? What was ever the point? Look where's it's gotten us. All that trouble we went through to get rid of the Dragon Slayers, unwittingly creating a Dragon King bathed in blood. It all started because some of us just couldn't even fathom us being on the same level as humans. Not even! They couldn't think of the _possibility_ of just not killing them all. It disgusts me."

Igneel was silent as she raved. Everyone knew of her opinion of the matter. She never seemed to stop talking about it when she wasn't winning someone's heart. Grandine had been on the side of the co-existence between humans and dragons, had even trained a Dragon Slayer in her Air magic.

She had been horrified with both dragons and humans alike when the Dragon King came into being. Had gone into hiding after being forced to kill the Dragon Slayer she'd raised with her own love and caring. She'd only come back out of hiding in the past sixty or seventy years, acting like normal but having a deep hatred of anyone who spoke against the humans.

Igneel hadn't taken a side in the war. Sure he could say he liked the humans, but more like pets. He couldn't really see the humans and dragons living peacefully together. Heck, the dragons and humans alone couldn't co-exist with their own species most of the time.

Humans were always having wars between each other, and if the Great Dragon War was anything to look at, clearly they weren't prepared for co-existence with any other species either. Of course, bringing these two flawed species together had ended in disaster that they were still trying to make their way out of.

Before that war, most Dragon Council meetings had been boring, talking about which places on Earthland where humans would need to repopulate before dragons started eating them again, telling particularly rebellious dragons to let some steam off over the ocean rather than breaking an entire island, that sort of mundane thing. Now it was all about fixing what had been broken during the war. No one liked talking about it, but it was all they did anyways.

They tried to ignore the issue of co-existence now, even though everyone had their own strong opinions of it now. They had to stay together now. That stupid little Dragon Slayer was out there still and would probably brutally murder any dragon he came across, be they of his former opinion or not. It had been a unanimous decision that the war was on hold until they had cleared up the problem that had started with the Dragon Slayers.

No one was pointing claws at the other side. Not anymore. The Dragon King didn't see any difference in those with wings, so they didn't bother anymore. What they did need to bother with was how to get rid of him. So far, in the past—what, three-hundred years?—no one had been able to come up with a good idea.

The last idea had ended with hundreds of dragons laying dead in a cavern where they had planned on trapping the King and killing him with their combined power. Igneel had watched from afar as the leader of the group—what was his name? Zirconis?—was killed by the black dragon, followed closely by the dragons that followed him. Even the great Igneel hadn't dared to make a move. Greatness wasn't always decided by power; after all, sometimes you needed to know when you were just out-armed.

No, he hadn't taken a side in that war, hadn't even participated in it, content to sleep away his days in the forest and completely destroy any dragons who challenged him, angry at him for _not_ being in the war. Oh yes, just because he wasn't an active part in the war didn't make him a pacifist of any sort. Though, he mused, it seemed that no dragons really were.

"I'm sorry that I can't say I share the same mind, Grandine," he said back.

The female dragon pouted. "You never chose a side, Igneel, not during the war. You still have a chance to change your mind about it."

He guffawed slightly. "There's very little chance of that happening."

"You've never met a human that you at least didn't want to kill on sight?"

He thought back to when he first found Natsu in the forest, how he had considered just killing the boy right then and there so he wouldn't have to bother with it. He winced slightly, but that was enough for Grandine.

"Ah ha! See? You're not as heartless as everyone says you are."

"Who says I'm heartless?"

"I just said everyone."

They slowed and landed on a large, flat-topped mountain just a few peaks from the Dragon Council chamber. Igneel harrumphed. Natsu wasn't a human though. That didn't really count anymore. But would he be able to kill another human? Now that he'd spent so long with Natsu, who looked exactly like a human, would he be able to just mercilessly kill their kind? It was an interesting question that he thought deserved a test of a sort. But to deal with Grandine…

"It's far more in my tastes to not take a side, my dear. Why should I care whether dragons decide to play nice with the humans or not? I don't take joy in _killing_ them as much as I don't in killing a dragon. I live alone in any case, no humans, no dragons, why should it matter to me?"

She narrowed her eyes. "Because you're in the High Dragon Council, that's why, and because you in the Dragon Council are basically leading the other dragons."

"We discuss our problems as a whole and bring new ideas to dragons who would otherwise act upon the first thought that occurs to them. You should listen as well, you know, maybe you'll learn something from the other side of this argument."

Ignoring the small jibe, Grandine seemed curious. "Why _are_ you in the Council, you never talk much, and usually only to threaten other members of the Council. Do you really want the position that badly that you scared everyone else to letting you on?"

Igneel huffed slightly. "If I wasn't on the Council, every meeting would just end in another Great War. I don't care much for politics, but if all the forests get knocked down in another battle I can't hold myself accountable for my actions."

Grandine purred slightly. "That does seem very much like you, my friend. Please, go on and keep said idiots from destroying Earthland."

He grunted and started off for the chamber.

"Oh, and say hello to Metalicana for me, will you, I haven't seen her yet and I wanted to—"

"Yes, yes, I shall send her your welcome, Grandine. Goodbye." Igneel dove into the mountain. Something seemed strange about her today. He didn't really think about it until she wasn't in his company but Grandine seemed a bit different from normal.

Some part of him squirmed with the thought that she might be training a new Dragon Slayer, but even Grandine's love for the humans wouldn't have her make such a terrible decision again. He landed at the bottom of the mountain, on the uneven stone, and took in the other dragons with haughty eyes.

Yes, he was Igneel the Great again. Older than most dragons, the hermit of his kind but more powerful than any could truly imagine.

Most of the cavern was full already with the Council members, only one or two were missing. He spotted Metalicana very easily, her scales shined so that they reflected every bit of light that came her way. She looked powerful and cross, as usual.

"Metalicana," Igneel greeted highly. She was powerful and many knew it, but was fairly young compared to most, earning her a seat of sixth in the Dragon Council.

She looked at Igneel and scowled, what he supposed to be her form of a smile. "Yes, what is it that you want, old dragon?" Or maybe it really _was_ just a scowl. Strangely enough though, her insolence often amused him rather than made him angry, maybe because that insolence was backed up with the brains and strength of a top notch dragon while others were just utterances of idiots.

"Grandine says hello."

Her expression threw him off. It was one of fear, but only for a moment before the expression was wiped away by anger, then a poker-face of annoyance. Igneel found himself interested.

"Just hello?"

"Just hello. Did you expect anything else?"

She scoffed. "Of course not. Why would I?"

Igneel looked her over carefully. She'd clearly cleaned herself up more than usual, though she hadn't bothered in any years previous. "Indeed, why?"

There was a roar that was struck up and Igneel looked up to see the dark grey wings of a swift dragon spiraling down to the floor. He backed up, as was custom, as their first seated of the Dragon Council alighted on the floor.

Acnologia. The first. Of course, now his name was Thanatos, having changed it after the Dragon King claimed his teachers own name. Thanatos had been livid, but not stupid enough to fight against the monster of his own making, knowing the power the human turned dragon now held. When the Dragon King announced the changing of his name, their first seated changed his own, not wanting any ties to the creature of destruction any more.

It hadn't come as a surprise that Thanatos' Dragon Slayer had been the most powerful of all and the first to find the true extent of his power(all because Igneel hadn't taught a Dragon Slayer, who would have been the best had he existed). After all, his type of dragon came from the same type of magic that Zeref's did.

No one was sure if Thanatos actually knew the dark wizard of death or not and didn't particularly want to ask, normally they stayed away from the dark dragon. Everyone except for the Greatest dragon of them all, of course.

Igneel grinned as his most trusted friend—if dragons had friends—turned to him with an amused smile. "Evening, first seated."

"As to you, oh Great One." Thanatos was younger than Igneel and, when he was still young, looked up to the Fire Dragon and sought his guidance. As Thanatos grew older and more assertive, more leader-like, Igneel and he fell into a sort of companionship where they would ask each other favors and would talk easily.

That was friendship, right? Igneel supposed so, and if not then Thanatos was the closest thing he had to one. Of course, Igneel was still somewhat of a hermit and didn't come out of his hiding much, but when he did the younger dragon usually had something to do with it. Thanatos was probably the main reason Igneel was on the high Council, insisting that his mentor be there to guide them as the wisest of all if he was able to guide the Dragon of Darkness and Death to the highest position of Council possible.

Igneel didn't mind; he didn't have to do much anyways other than keeping the others from biting or scorching each other too badly, and Thanatos seemed to draw strength from his ever present company. Igneel supposed that his mentorship of Thanatos was the closest he'd gotten to raising a child before Natsu. Which honestly wasn't saying much since the dark dragon had been fairly independent since he was very young.

"Well then, are we all here?" the highest called out to the cavern.

One dragon, Kamoana, called, "Ztafriri is dead. He shall not join us."

Thanatos whipped his head around to the Water Dragon. "How?"

She dipped her head. "The Dragon King."

There was silence for a moment. Thanatos finally nodded. "Chalfon, Petran, Kalpana, you are moved up a seat in the council, we shall decide a new seating for tenth now." He roared this so that all the dragons outside of the mountain they were in would hear the echo.

And thus began the council.

Igneel was mostly silent, and bored, as they discussed who would join the Council now that they were short one dragon, taking longer than probably necessary to decide on Isako, the Sand Dragon, who flew in shortly after it was announced, looking proud and excited. Igneel rolled his eyes. Youth could often mislead.

Jitatma, who was seated just under Igneel, chuckled at the Fire Dragon's silence. "I suppose you wish that Nirmoh had been shoved off so you could be second seated, eh?"

Igneel grunted. "I don't _wish_ for the death of any. It's just a consequence of life."

"You could be a philosopher with a tongue like that," Chalfon said with a smirk.

"Perhaps, but then he'd stop having to hide himself away in his mysterious forests all the time," Thanatos joked, causing small guffaws all around the circle.

Igneel huffed, smoke rising from his nostrils. "I only say what everyone should know already. If you really think that's worth philosophy you truly _are_ all idiots." Thanatos laughed at that one, but everyone else seemed mildly insulted. Igneel couldn't stop an inward smirk at that.

"Shouldn't we move onto more pressing matters? Like The Dragon King?" Nirmoh asked, ever the more reasonable and responsible of the Council.

Thanatos stopped laughing, his eyes turning back to the dark side he liked to hide. The remembrance of his own student turning on his kind darkening his entire persona. "Yes, let's talk about that child."

But, even though he said that, there wasn't much to talk about. They probably spent more than two days arguing back and forth on what to do, the same opinions and ideas as last year popping up again and again.

Igneel lamented on Nirmoh's wise stupidity. They'd spend the entire week just arguing about how to take care of the Dragon King now and get nothing done. Normally, they held this discussion off until the end when they could argue until the buzzer went off and they went their separate ways until the next year. Of course, nothing was being done as a result, but it kept the smaller matters from being ignored at least.

It was always the same three opinions. Have all the dragons storm him at once—surely not even The Dragon King could fend off against _all _of them—, teach a new Dragon Slayer specifically to kill The Dragon King—because there was no way _that _wouldn't go horribly wrong—, or hide from the beast's awful might until he died some other way—because there had to be _something _human under all those scales, right?—.

Igneel took no one's side, though most assumed he would take the hiding side. He had laughed and said only the weak hid themselves away and waited for something to pan itself out, but had no answer when they asked what he suggested to do.

He was powerful, mighty, and had a good grasp on life. Death, and the powers of which it held, were Thanatos' angle, he didn't know what to do about a human-dragon who held that power; he was a _Fire_ Dragon after all.

But something had _changed_ in this meeting, something none of them expected. Metalicana had changed her perspective. Before she had been routing for an all-out attack, but, for some reason, she'd changed her mind to hiding themselves away. Such a turnaround from the haughty dragon was completely unexpected and threw several of the dragons through a loop.

Isako asked what had made her change her mind, but Metalicana merely snarled at the new member, clearly not wanting to give any personal explanations away. They argued on, Igneel stepping in every once and a while when Kamoana or Petran tried to get physical as they usually tended to do.

The next topic was almost even worse. What to do about Zeref? Thanatos held his ground that the dark mage was no real threat to the dragons unless they made him a threat, though the others of the council were trying to get him to say more. Did they know where he was? Had he spoken to the wizard? How did he know that Zeref was not a threat?

Igneel took a short nap for this one. He knew Thanatos could stand up for himself and honestly Igneel couldn't back him up in any way. He didn't really care about the dark wizard anyways. Let him be, whatever. As long as he wasn't actively trying to kill off their kind like a certain King was then why bother? He was human, wasn't he? Let him be the human's problem.

Thanatos shared the same view, probably, but convincing the other dragons as such was more difficult that imagined. Dragons were stubborn creatures, all of them, and it was always hard to persuade them of anything.

By the time they were back on track, actually being productive again, four days of their week had passed and Igneel was more tired than ever, even after his nap. Boring, little things were being discussed, finally. Boring, little things that rarely needed his input, but when they did they _really_ needed it or else would suffer at the hand of stupidity.

They had two days left. No, one day, after more arguing. They had one day left and Igneel actually had something to say for once.

"So," he said casually, his voice cutting through the cavern and making the others look at the normally silent dragon curiously. "Has anyone found any dragon eggs recently?"

To his surprise, Metalicana snarled at him. "No one's seen dragon eggs since we stopped laying them."

Igneel looked at her sharply, making it clear that he was stronger and of a higher position than her as he stretched out his neck a bit and raised his wings threateningly. "It was a question. A simple observation. I wondered recently if maybe we missed some of the eggs that had been laid before. I know after the females stopped laying the eggs that we sent out to relocate them all, but what if some were missed? Or were so old that we forgot about them and have been sitting alone for all these years? That's not too difficult a question, is it?"

He noticed Kalpana looking fairly shifty as well. His eyes narrowed. What exactly was going on?

Thanatos was looking at him curiously. "What brings on this question, Igneel?"

"Just curious. I was wondering when exactly we'd be getting little dragons again. If we truly _have_ stopped breeding, then we're a dead species already, aren't we? What even caused this to happen in the first place? A curse? Something to do with genetics? Maybe it was just our time to stop breeding, to end the reign of dragons. It's probably what began The Great War, when you get down to the roots of it."

Nirmoh scoffed. "How so?"

Well, for one thing, our kids look like humans now. "We've stopped having children, a sure sign that we're dying out. So what do we do? Ally ourselves with the second most powerful, most prominent species on this planet. What else is there to do other than make a deal with the devil?"

There was silence as everyone drank this in.

"He has a point," Jitatma said, nodding. "This may be bigger than we can see right now."

"Yes, when we will start laying eggs again," Kamoana said irritably.

Petran frowned. "This all started nearly a thousand years ago, yes? Why? How? Does anyone know?"

There was silence in the cavern.

Thanatos nodded slightly. "Perhaps an investigation should be put underway? Kamoana, Petran, you shall be put in charge of it. Try questioning the females first, who might know something, anything, about how this came to pass." The two nodded and, for the rest of the time they had together, ideas were tossed back and forth about how the breeding had stopped.

Igneel tuned it out. Metalicana and Kalpana had been acting strangely and he intended to find out why. Though in private. If he seemed _too_ interested in this topic, some might get curious. Council ended with an almighty roar, courtesy of Thanatos, and Igneel left the mountain to wait for Kalpana, who was far more agreeable than Metalicana even in the worst of cases.

"Kalpana," he called when she flew out from the cave. She landed next to him and he looked her over. She was the Dragon of Illusion. Not particularly powerful, but cunning and sleek, showing her strength in battle a fair many times when on the side against co-existence with the humans.

"What is it Igneel? I should like to be out of your company soon after having to endure it for a full week."

Igneel clucked his teeth together. Certainly he wasn't _that_ bad. "You know more about the eggs than you're letting on."

She looked at him slyly. "Why so interested, old dragon? Want one for your own?"

He groaned internally. "I want to know what you're hiding from everyone."

She snarled. "Nothing! I haven't laid an egg in a thousand years and haven't found one in as much time. Leave, hermit, before I call upon the fancies of the mind to take you!"

Igneel fixed her with a deep glare, but knew he wouldn't get anything else out of her. He lifted into the air, no longer keen on looking for Metalicana, knowing she'd probably attack him if the normally fairly complacent Kalpana's reaction was so harsh.

An odd thought suddenly occurred to Igneel as he flew past a flock of chatting females. What if one of the dragons he was now looking at was Natsu's mother? The layer of his egg? It was a thought that was completely unwelcome and had come out of nowhere, not to mention set him on edge.

He didn't think such a thing would bother him, but it suddenly did. Mothers and fathers usually came as a couple, didn't they? At least, for humans they did, which Natsu looked remarkably like. What if the situation were that he had to pair up with the mother of Natsu's egg and raise the child with her as humans did? Who would that be? He really hoped it wasn't any of the female dragons he knew, most of which were snobbish and rude, or who had come to want to maim him on sight for whatever reason.

A shiver made his scales raise a bit. What a horrifying thought.

Arka was suddenly next to him in the air. "Well done once again, managing to get everyone ticked off at you as usual. Is there a meeting that goes by without all the council members hating your guts at some point?"

"If there has, I must have slept through it," Igneel answered, feeling a pounding headache begin and just wanting to go home.

"Is that what you're doing in your long periods of silence? I suppose it makes sense for such an old dragon to—"

"Arka, how nice to see you, would you mind if I stole Igneel from you for but a moment?"

The sudden appearance of the first seat surprised the Storm Dragon for a moment. "Well, of course, do with him what you will, oh Great One." Arka winked at Igneel for good measure before flapping East, probably to terrorize a nearby town.

"I'll be sure to fly south for a while," Igneel said lowly so only Thanatos could hear.

The younger dragon chuckled. "Arka can be a handful, but I believe he knows what he's doing."

"Doing? What does he do other than eat, sleep, and destroy entire human civilizations?" Igneel scoffed.

"Do I hear some co-existence in that tone of voice?" Thanatos teased.

"I remain neutral to the end, don't you worry. What is it you wanted to speak to me about?"

Thanatos became serious. "About the Dragon King—"

"Ah, I think we've heard enough about him for another year now, don't you think?"

"Igneel, he continuously kills our kind and yet we've still done nothing about it. Doesn't that bother you?"

"Until the day he kills you or I, no."

"We have to do something."

Igneel looked at him closely. "You don't speak about your opinion very often in the actual meeting, what is it again?"

Thanatos looked at him darkly. "I want him dead, of course."

"Yes, but how?"

"I think the council should be mighty enough to take down such a man. But it would be wise to take as many as possible with us."

Igneel scoffed. "That's what Zirconis said as well, and look what happened to him and four other Council members."

"Yes, but if we had all the Council members and as many underlings as possible, do you not think we can overpower a single dragon?"

That was a difficult question. Normally, yes. But Igneel had seen the massacre of hundreds of dragons by the beast's own claw and that hardly seemed real. As if he had gained the power to kill from Zeref himself. No. It would never be enough.

"I can't say."

"Then we could at least _try_."

"You would need the whole council on your side, not just me."

"But you are on the edge right now and would be the first step to convincing everyone else. What do you say?"

Igneel looked at him seriously, seeing the young dragon who had looked up to him all those years ago shadowed by the darkness the dragon before him had faced in life. "I stand by you, my friend."

Thanatos bared his fangs in a grin. "Thank you, my friend. We shall meet again soon."

He winged away as Igneel muttered, "I certainly hope not," before heading south.

Yes, he would follow Thanatos' decision, would follow him to the end of the world. But…if that meant leaving Natsu, meant abandoning his _son_…he wasn't sure anymore.

* * *

><p>Alsarnia: I HATE YOU COMPUTER! I HATE YOU SO MUCH!<br>Natsu: I'm scared!  
>Happy: A-aye!<br>Alsarnia: Clearly, my computer is not all the way fixed as the fan keeps making this horrible, annoying grinding sound that usually goes away when I smack it really hard, but that's not working right now! –tries to throttle her laptop-  
>Lucy: You should really get that looked at…<br>Alsarnia: My Dad fixed it before! He's not a laptop genius! He did the best he could!  
>Lucy: Just buy a new one…<br>Alsarnia: I'm saving up for this really cool hoodie though…  
>Natsu: Women and clothes, I'll never get it.<br>Alsarnia: So what did you guys think? I cranked out the next chapter pretty quick, huh? I sat down to type this and it all came out at once! I'm pretty impressed with myself actually. And now my wrists hurt –massages hands-  
>Natsu: He was right, that Council thing IS boring.<br>Lucy: He was talking about you at the end  
>Natsu: It was still boring<br>Happy: I never knew all that about the dragons!  
>Alsarnia: Well, none of this is cannon; it's all just bits and pieces I put together with my own twist since we know next to nothing about the actual dragons in the real story.<br>Natsu: So Grandine, Metalicana, and Igneel weren't actually friends at the beginning?  
>Alsarnia: Nope, Grandine's just really friendly and Metalicana happens to be on the Council with Igneel. I made Metalicana a girl because…well, because I can imagine Gajeel being raised by a super strict and massively powerful Mom. And I haven't heard anything saying Metalicana's a boy, but if it does say somewhere I'll see if I can change it somehow…<br>Lucy: So, the seating's thing…  
>Alsarnia: Oh yeah, here's a list if anyone's curious how all the dragons are seated in the Council:<br>1: Thanatos  
>2: Nirmoh<br>3: Igneel  
>4: Jitatma<br>5: Kamoana  
>6: Metalicana<br>7: Chalfon (formerly Ztafriri)  
>8: Petran<br>9: Kalpana  
>10: Isako<br>Happy: Interesting.  
>Lucy: That does clear some things up.<br>Natsu: Why isn't Igneel at the top?  
>Alsarnia: Because he's not first seat.<br>Natsu: Why?  
>Alsarnia: Because he doesn't want to be first seat.<br>Natsu: Why?  
>Alsarnia: Because first seat has to talk a lot.<br>Happy: -sniggers- Why?  
>Alsarnia: Because—HAPPY!<br>Lucy: Get ready for Natsu and Igneel's reunion after a full week apart next time folks!


	9. Return

-Alsarnia, now Dragon, returns to Father to find a three story building with a water slide leading from a pool-top roof to the ground floor. She stops and stares in confusion-

Dragon: What happened?

-Natsu leans over the side where Lucy and Happy join him upon looking down at the author-

Natsu: Lucy's really good at business.

Lucy: I had to inherit something from my father!

Dragon: Why are we doing this AN? What the heck, I don't do this anymore!

Happy: It's tradition –takes a sip of a smoothie-

Dragon: …Do you have a smoothie bar up there?

Natsu: Yes.

Dragon: …Can I come in?

All: No.

Dragon: -pouts- I'm just gonna…leave this chapter here and go sit on the street corner thinking about what I've done…

Lucy: That would be best.

Dragon: -nails chapter to the front door- So, um, if you want an explanation of why this has taken so long, I'm putting it at the bottom so it doesn't clog up the story. So, um, here you go.

Happy: Fairy Tail © Hiro Mashima

One of the worst things about the Dragon Council was how much it made Igneel _think_ even afterwards. Oh, there were many things that he hated about the Dragon Council and very few things that kept him from going at all, but he could usually stand all the other effects. The thinking though was hard on him, even months after. It always seemed that as soon as he was done thinking about the last meeting the next one was already upon him.

This meeting left him in a similar manner. No matter how hard he tried to ignore it, something was going behind his back. And he _hated_ it when others kept secrets from him.

There were a lot of dragons who were acting strangely, though now that he thought about it, the only ones he really noticed it in were all female. Was that a connection? Considering how few similarities there were between Kalpana, Metalicana, and Grandine, it seemed the only logical explanation. But Isako and Kamoana weren't acting odd at all…

Perhaps he shouldn't question it? Certainly, he had been acting strange as well, thoughts consistently drifting back to wonder if his son would be maimed by the time he got back or if the opposite happened. Although, he really didn't mind the idea of his son suddenly gaining fire powers and burning all the frogs to a crisp. Well, if he didn't mind eating them afterwards at least.

Igneel's wings beat steadily on a warm air current, pulling him farther south as his eyes scanned the land beneath him and his nose picked up the subtle scents that drifted up from the ground far below. Peeling his attention away for but a moment, he glanced behind himself to see nothing but a flock of birds that flew along his path.

He was getting antsy. Some part of him warning what could happen if he accidently allowed another dragon to follow him back to Natsu. It was completely unlikely that it would happen, Igneel hadn't had a _guest_ in at least a thousand years and it was almost impossible for anyone to keep up with the whims of his wanderlust, but the little seed of his worry just wouldn't be stamped out.

He continued to glide. He didn't get to fly often. Too conspicuous. He didn't want _any_ kind of creature bothering him, and taking a morning flight every day would just be inviting either humans to come inspect what he was doing in this forest or that and would be a shout out to any dragons who happened to be nearby. He had almost begun to prefer taking walks, seeing all the little details on the forest floor rather than just the tops of trees and wide expanses of fields and water, but flying still had that almost therapeutic touch to it. If a dragon could doze off while flying then he would have certainly done so more than once.

The calming effect of air washing over his scales was halted as soon as he recognized a scent on the winds and saw ridiculously large trees with branches that entwined far above the ground as if to make a second floor out of wood and leaves. Angling his wings, he felt a touch of excitement to be back, knowing that his son would come rushing out of the stream to greet him and that he wouldn't have to leave again for another year.

He came crashing through the layer of trees as ungracefully as the first time and alighted on the ground with a loud _crash_. The forest was just how he had left it. Untouched by anything other than the nature that had been born within it.

Taking a large whiff of the air around him, Igneel set off towards the clean smell of water until he found the stream. Only after taking a drink did he begin to follow it downstream, back towards the home he shared with Natsu. Had the boy slept in their shelter every night, or did he stay with the frogs? It didn't get very cold at night here, though he hadn't given it much thought before he left.

He was broken out of his thoughts by an indignant _ribbit_. Looking down, he found a frog he had almost stepped on in his rush through the woods. No, he wasn't rushing. Just briskly walking towards his destination.

He lowered his head so that the water from the stream splashed up under his chin, fizzling at the contact with his hot scales. "Where is my son?"

The frog took a moment to think before croaking and hopping down the way that Igneel had been headed. Igneel passed the frog easily, having gained all the information he needed, and continued to search for either the shiny gold of a crown or the shock of pink that was his son.

"Igneel!"

The cry astounded him, as he had no idea where it had come from, until something small and slimy collided with his leg. Looking down, he saw what he initially thought to be a muck monster of some sort. Until he recognized the shape and realized it was Natsu.

The boy looked up at him, only to show his entire face and head was covered with mud as well, little sticks and leaves shoved indelicately into his hair and teeth so that the only thing that wasn't some variation of brown was his eyes. It took him another moment to get over the fact that his imagined reunion did not go the way he had expected.

"Natsu, what are you doing?"

The little boy, not letting go of his father's leg, sent a quizzical look skyward. "I'm hugging you?"

"No, I mean…" he sighed. Not how he expected this to go at all. "Why are you covered in mud? Did the frogs do this to you?"

"Oh, ummmm, no."

"Natsu."

"It stinks!"

"What does?"

"_Me_."

Such a simple and confusing answer actually made him laugh. Before flicking his tail and sending his son flying into the river.

"No fair!"

Igneel was scraping off the mud from his leg and ignored the cries from the boy. Natsu continued to yell about how he hated baths and how everything smells, heedless of whether he was heard or not.

"Wash all that mud off. You probably just think you smell because it does."

"_Nooooooo_! Mud smells like mud! But I smell like a whole bunch of things!" He paused for a moment and lifted his nose into the air. Igneel, though thinking it strange to see the action performed by a human, recognized what he was doing immediately.

"Natsu? Did your sense of smell increase?"

"Igneel, you smell like a bunch of stuff too!"

"Natsu, did you hear me?"

"Yeah."

"Is that a yes to you heard me or a yes to whether you can smell now?"

"Um, yes."

Igneel took a moment to lament the mind of a child as Natsu continued to sniff at the air. Igneel leaned down again, but before he could say anything, his son grabbed his snout and pressed his nose into his scales.

"You kind of smell like me Igneel! But it's not there as much, and you have more rock smells on you too!"

"That's because I've been in a mountain all week and because a lot of it was washed away by my flying. Natsu, when did you start being able to smell like this?"

The little boy stepped back and tapped his chin before looking around like he had lost something. "Um, right after you left. I think. We had a mud fight and then everything just started smelling."

Igneel wasn't sure what to make of this. He let Natsu walk around the shore of the river while he tried to make sense of the situation. He had just assumed that Natsu had all the senses of a regular dragon from the moment he hatched, but perhaps he was wrong? If Natsu's sense of smell had been dulled until now, what was the trigger that changed it? Perhaps there wasn't a trigger, per say, but he was just growing into his senses?

In that case, was there anything else that he had assumed about Natsu that wasn't true? How good was his eyesight? His hearing? Maybe this was the reason that Natsu was having trouble producing fire magic? Right. He often forgot that Natsu was still, technically, a newborn. It was strange to think about, since he both acted and looked older than he really was.

Natsu had gotten himself stuck in a bush, so Igneel helped to pull him out, finding the problem to be that his hands were occupied with holding his turtle. He laughed, despite his thoughts, because how could he not when Natsu was _still_ playing with the little animal?

The boy looked very proud of himself though and held up the animal. "Turtle smells kind of like the frogs, but different! See? Sniff him!"

Igneel's smile was wiped away as he vehemently hoped that Natsu asking him to smell things would not become a habit of his already eccentric child. "I know what turtles smell like, it's okay."

"No, you have to smell _Turtle_!"

Feeling like he just got home, Igneel huffed before leaning down and taking a small whiff, only slightly surprised to find the smell of rosemary and mud mixed in with the animal's reptilian scent. For a moment he considered questioning Natsu on the smell again now that he could probably pick it up as well, but decided to just let it go. The scent was practically everywhere his son went now and he had lost interest in finding out what it was ages ago.

Natsu was torturing the poor animal once again, flipping it over and avoiding its snapping jaws while cooing about how stinky it was. Igneel snorted. Yes, he was back. His return had been nothing like he imagined and Natsu didn't seem any worse for the wear. And while he was a little upset that he couldn't rampage and wipe out the frogs for any real good reason, he was pretty happy to be back.

"Hey Igneel?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you going to leave like that again, ever?"

"Hmm, yes, but in a long time from now, so you don't have to worry about it."

A look of relief passed over the pink haired boy's face. "That's good. I don't like it when you leave. It's boring. How long are we going to stay in this place for?"

Igneel wondered this himself. After the little break he'd had from the forest, it seemed almost fresh and new to him again, or at least far more comforting than the rocky mountain range the council had been held in. He felt in no rush anymore, with a purpose to keep him rooted to the spot he was in rather than changing locations every few weeks. He couldn't stay here forever though. The trees would eventually get stifling and the water would start to taste like dust, but for now it seemed wide and clean.

"We can stay here for a while yet."

Natsu beamed excitedly before flipping the turtle around. "You hear that Turtle? We're going to be staying!"

"For a while." The dragon looked at the little reptile as its legs kicked uselessly in midair. "You can't bring the turtle when we leave, you know."

Natsu's smile turned around. "What? Why? Turtle's my friend! How come he can't come?"

Igneel searched for a good way to put this into words in a way his simple minded child would understand. "Well, would you bring one of the frogs if you could?"

The boy's eyes lit up. "Can I!?"

Not the reaction he was hoping for. "No." The excitement drooped again. Igneel looked for a different way to say this. "This forest is the turtle's home."

Natsu looked confused. "But why can't he come with me? He likes me, right? So why wouldn't he? I like you so I go with you."

Igneel hummed and blew out a thin stream of smoke. "Yes, but this isn't quite the same. That turtle has lived here its whole life, so this forest is where it likes to be. Yes, you're his friend, but he probably has other friends in this forest too. Would you like it if someone took you away from me?"

The child's expression turned horrified. "No!"

Igneel chuckled at the reaction. "See? Your turtle probably has a family somewhere in this forest as well, don't you think?"

Natsu frowned and looked down at the shell, where the animal had tucked itself away into. "Am I…Am I being bad, Igneel? Because I want to take Turtle with us?"

The dragon hummed and considered the question. It was funny how having a child made one ponder things that he considered normal. "Not…bad, really. But you are being selfish."

The little pink head cocked to the side. "What's that?"

"It means that you're not thinking of anyone but yourself."

There was a moment of thought and a crinkled forehead before the boy nodded slightly to himself. "And that's bad."

"Not always."

Igneel laughed at the frustrated expression the boy gave him. "But if you don't protect other people then that's bad, right?"

"Sometimes you have to think of yourself though. If you get hurt, either if you break your arm or if you're really sad, it makes it harder for you to protect the people you care about, right? So sometimes you have to protect yourself so that you can protect others later."

Igneel watched Natsu struggle to wrap his mind around the matter, having stopped playing with the animal in his hands and staring at the ground in concentration. Igneel couldn't really imagine what it must be like to have such a difficult time understanding things as Natsu did. He had thousands of years of experience and had often learned by action rather than someone explaining things to him. There was a reason he had as many scars as he did.

But such a small boy as Natsu couldn't do many, if any, of those trails and expect to come out alive. He had learned that there are those out there much stronger than him, even if they didn't seem like it, and that was such a simple lesson that could be learned with even simpler actions. Something like explaining what being selfish meant and that it wasn't bad was almost beyond him.

Especially when he wasn't sure himself whether being selfish was bad or not. He would be the world's biggest hypocrite if he just told Natsu that being selfish was bad and that he shouldn't do it, but certainly saying that it was a good thing would make him the world's biggest liar (Igneel never settled for second best). The reason why he never got involved with anybody else wasn't exactly for their benefit, after all. And he never really went out of his way to help others, so wouldn't that make him selfish? It was difficult trying to put something so abstract into words that a child would understand.

"So…" Natsu said slowly, "Sometimes it's good…and sometimes it's bad?"

It was a rather crude way of summing it up, but it somehow still fit. "Yes. I suppose you could think of it like that."

"And…taking Turtle with us is the bad kind of selfish?"

"Well…probably."

"How come?"

So many questions! Why couldn't the boy just be done with all this?! "Have you ever heard the phrase 'If you love something let it go'?"

Natsu probably looked more confused. "No?"

Oh, right, probably because Igneel was the only person he'd ever talked to and he had certainly never uttered that phrase before then. "Right…It means if you really do care about something that you want to make that something happy and safe, right?"

Natsu thought for a moment. "Yeah! If it's my friend then I want to protect them! And their smiles too!"

"That's right. But what if to protect your friend's smile you have to make yourself sad? What if you have to let turtle stay here while we leave but it'll make him happy?"

Natsu took a deep breath and looked at the little creature in his hands, the turtle still not having come out of his shell. Igneel waited for an answer, expecting a bright 'Of course!' or whining 'But I don't wanna!' But apparently nothing he expected to happen was really going the way he thought today.

"Igneel…can I think about this some more?"

The great dragon, a little whiplashed from the strange answer, took a moment to nod. "You don't have to know exactly what you think about this yet, Natsu. You're still really young so you have plenty of time to think about it."

"But we're gonna leave, right?"

Igneel breathed out a cloud of ash. "You will be thinking about this for far longer than when we are in this forest, Natsu. That I can promise you."

"But I'll figure it out, right?"

Igneel smiled, having the gesture returned slightly. "You're a smart boy, Natsu. I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually."

A month and a half later and Natsu still hadn't figured it out. Which made him rather panicked as he and Igneel were leaving the next day. Since then, Igneel had given identical speeches to his son about the frogs and his ever mysterious friend Bell, but only seemed to confuse him further. Igneel had encouraged him not to think too hard about it and simply enjoy his last days in the forest, but the topic of his own selfishness was eating away at the child.

He had talked to Bell about it a few times and though she seemed like she held all the answers he would need it was impossible to translate them in a way that he could actually figure out what they were. He had gotten marvelously better at guessing what the frogs meant when they gave him seemingly random 'ribbit's and could more or less tell what Bell was trying to say if she hadn't gone into a long-winded speech or wasn't just chattering away at him. The rest of the time he just kind of made up words and tried to piece together a meaning that definitely had nothing to do with what they were actually saying.

The King Frog had actually started to visit their shelter more often, hopping around and trying to strike up conversation with whoever happened to be around at the moment. Igneel was baffled by either the stupid brazenness or…no, it was definitely stupid brazenness. It could be nothing else coming from the frog. But Natsu was rather thrilled, saying that it must be because the frog recognized Igneel as the king of the forest.

This prompted many a game of pretend where Natsu would go around gathering the junk of nature and offering it to 'the king's' and the attempt to make a crown made out of sticks and pebbles for Igneel. The great dragon had worn it for a while, just to keep the boy happy, but as soon as he had forgotten about it and wasn't looking the dragon torched the ugly little thing, swiping the charred remains away with his tail before Natsu was any the wiser.

Natsu clearly wasn't getting over his sniffing phase either, pressing his nose right up against any new object or animal he found and taking a deep whiff so he could remember it. At one point he had nearly gotten himself killed as he walked right up to a pack of wolves, intent on learning their scent. Of course, walking forward with his arms outstretched because they just looked so _fluffy_ didn't help much either. Igneel spent most of the rest of the week trudging around with his boy on his back, pointing out to him which animals were lunch and which were dangerous for a little boy to go around sniffing and trying to hug.

To his utter frustration, Natsu didn't regret it at all.

He had been right though, in that Natsu would want him to sniff at practically everything he did, though he eventually convinced the boy that he could smell things from a ways away so that he didn't have to _really_ smell whatever he'd gotten his hands on. To his utter annoyance, the frogs had also picked up on this game. Though they didn't really see it as more than 'pick up random objects and bring them to Igneel'. The dragon, already not fond of their presence, found it harder and harder to keep himself from just snapping up a few of them.

He restrained himself if only for his son that seemed to think so fondly of them.

He had also been trying to focus on figuring out the difference between Natsu and a regular dragon. Asking him simple questions here and there that the boy probably just took to be little lessons from his father. Things like, "how many frogs can you count from here?" or "what kind of bird calls can you hear right now?" He then compared the answers to his own sight and hearing, trying to find a basis where he could judge how human the boy was. He found that most of it was above what he considered to be human sense, but still rather far below his own ability.

His eyesight was actually probably the best out of all his senses, though Igneel was unsure if it had ever taken such a sudden change as his sense of smell had. He was fairly certain that if Natsu ever suddenly began to pick out every individual leaf on a faraway tree he would have said something to his father, at the very least to brag. Igneel assumed this meant it was either progressing slow enough that Natsu didn't' notice or that his eyesight had been this good when he first hatched.

Still, he had to wonder about the smell thing that had happened. He was watching out for any sudden jerks from his son, a turn of the head as he heard something he hadn't before, like the rustle of the leaves in the wind far above him, or squinting and looking around at small objects as his vision was suddenly magnified tenfold.

He wasn't sure either of these things would happen at all, but just in case he wanted to be prepared. He was raising a dragon after all, anything could happen at any moment. But in the meantime, playing little kid games and teaching him the ways of the world would keep the both of them plenty busy.

Natsu had been gathering turtles for the past week and trying to keep them in one place while he searched for other ones. Igneel got the feeling that this was Natsu trying to get around the whole "selfish" thing so that he could still bring the little animal. He would stay firm though. Natsu was not allowed to bring the turtle. Or any other ones.

Igneel was half proud of himself for his deductive skills when Natsu finally approached him about all the turtles. It didn't mean he had to be happy about it though.

"Igneel! Look, I got all the turtles in the forest now! So does that mean I can—"

"No Natsu."

The little boy looked more surprised than anything. "But I'm not being selfish anymore! See? We won't take Turtle away from his family! We'll take them all with us and so Turtle will be happy and can still be my friend!"

Igneel sighed. He could never have guessed when he first found the boy that he would have so much trouble taking a turtle away from him. "Natsu, have you thought that the turtle might like this forest? That it wants to stay here instead of leaving?"

Natsu looked down at the hoard of turtles, allowing them to slowly escape in all directions. "Um, but we're friends, right? That means he wants to stay with me too, right?"

"Have you asked the turtle?"

Natsu picked up a seemingly random turtle from the pile and raised it to eye level. The turtle hung limp but was looking around slowly, as if amazed by the sudden height. Natsu pushed his face so he was looking at the boy and fixed him with a serious gaze. "Turtle, do you want to stay here?"

The reptile gave no obvious response, merely turning its head one way to look at a bush, then the other way to watch his family slowly walk away.

"See!" Natsu said excitedly. "He shook his head! He wants to come with us!"

"Natsu."

The little boy frowned up at his father, who was trying to be reprimanding but wasn't completely sure if that was how he was supposed to be handling this situation at all. Natsu's lip started quivering.

"But…If I leave him here that means I won't see him again…and we won't be friends anymore…"

Igneel leaned down to his son, who was trying very hard not to cry. "Natsu. You and your turtle will always be friends."

"But, how can we be friends if we never see each other?"

"You'll still see him, and he'll always be with you, just like with everyone you meet."

At the boy's confused look, Igneel smiled. He raised one great claw and pointed to the child's pink head. "In here, with all your memories that you have together." He moved the claw down to poke the boy's chest, which he giggled at. Igneel chuckled as well. "And in here, your heart. Where all your happy feelings towards your friend are kept."

Natsu blushed a little as he put his hand on his heart. He smiled and looked up at the dragon. "Really?"

Igneel chuckled again. "Really. So that means you don't have to bring him along anymore, right?"

Natsu thought about it for a minute before nodding. "Yeah! Because he'll always be with me! So he can be happy in the forest with his family and I can keep him in my heart and memories! Right?"

"That's right!"

The boy grinned, showing his pointy teeth, and spun on his heel. "I have to go tell Bell and the frogs! So that they know that I'll be with them too!"

Igneel smiled as he watched his son scamper off into the woods and took a moment to brush some of the turtles away from him with his tail. He supposed that Natsu just had that sort of personality to draw others to him. He was always happy and excited to do just about anything. He supposed that was what drew himself to the boy as well.

He wondered if he acted a little more like that then other dragons would start to like him better. Not that he really cared how many friends he had—the Great Igneel had no need for such trivial things—but being able to get along with others at least would be nice. There was a reason that Grandine didn't have the massive scars of battle that he had, and while fighting could be fun every once and a while he didn't exactly go seeking it out. Maybe if he was a little better liked Kalpana would have been more eager to share with him what was going on at the Council.

He sighed at the thought of the Council. He was still trying to work things out in his head about everything that had happened, even a month later. The more he thought about it the more he was certain that something was going on behind his back. At this point, he was almost considering tracking down one of the girls he'd spoken to and asking them what was going on, but he didn't want to leave Natsu alone again. Especially when he'd told the child that it would be another year before he left for a bit again.

And the problem with Thanatos…he had always been a bit of a radical thinker before, taking sides and then working at them to the extreme, but he hadn't suspected him to make the same mistakes Zirconis had. In the war, he had taken the co-existence side and trained a Dragon Slayer, poured his heart into the boy as well—and maybe that was the reason why things had turned out so badly. He had been thoroughly against the humans ever since, saying they were a plague whose existence was far beneath their own. The humans were crafty and took anything they could to gain the advantage over other species.

His opinions on the Dragon King were strong, for obvious reasons, and he had always disliked leaving him to do whatever he wanted. They lost more and more dragons every year to the bloodthirsty creature, and they were getting any back due to the problem with egg laying. Although, now that might be a little different, but it would still take many years to raise the population of dragons up again. Especially when the children didn't seem like dragons at all.

Igneel sighed. Maybe this was a curse, or just karma after the dragons having exploited the humans and then killing them afterwards. They were harsh times back then and it seemed every dragon was against one another. Maybe this was just the world paying them back for all the destruction and death they had caused. Giving them children in the forms of humans.

Maybe this was a good thing. It would put a definite halt to the arguments about which species was better and whether the dragons should allow the humans to continue living. If their own species had changed so that the differences between them were less and less then didn't that mean that the world was evening out their power?

Igneel rubbed his claws over the scales on his snout, brushing away ash and an itch that came up whenever he thought too hard about something. He hated all this. Couldn't he just live peacefully with his son in the forest? Not bothering with either humans or dragons? Why did something like that have to be so difficult?

Grumbling rather darkly, Igneel got up and headed towards the stream. His hyperactive child had a fantastic knack for driving away this headaches, and he really felt like he needed a good home remedy this time.

"Goodbye Turtle! Goodbye turtle! Goodbye frog! Goodbye turtle! Goodbye frog! Goodbye frog!"

Igneel huffed a cloud of ash from his mouth once again. He had told Natsu they were leaving almost an hour ago and the boy insisted on going to say goodbye to all the friends he had made in the forest. He had forgotten at the moment how many frogs there were and that the turtles his son had gathered up were still hanging around their shelter.

Igneel had taken care of erasing their tracks while Natsu played with the frog monsters and his friend Bell one last time. He didn't want his boy to be sad that they were leaving, but excited for the next place they were going to. He wouldn't let his boy be sad for long.

He had picked out another stone by the riverside and was clutching the two little rocks he had collected, even as he waved to and hugged all the monsters he had gotten to know while in the forest. When he got to the King Frog, he grinned up at the creature.

"Goodbye King Frog!"

The frog suddenly burst into tears and scooped up the boy into a large hug, almost making him drop his little stones. Igneel smiled as Natsu tried to squeeze the monster back just as tightly. He had been iffy about the creatures when they first got there, but it turned out to be a good thing that they were there.

When the frog finally set him down, Natsu smiled widely. "Don't worry! You'll always be in my heart and memories! Just like everyone else!"

The frog wiped away some tears and gave a few ribbits before reaching up and gathering the crown off his head and offering it to the boy. Natsu's eyes widened excitedly. "Are you giving me this?" he asked, just in case.

At a nod from the frog, the boy dropped the stone he had gotten from the river side and took the crown gently, his mouth in a little o shape as he held it for the first time. Igneel was rather surprised. Monsters, frog or not, were not generally known to be sharing creatures.

Natsu looked worried. "But then how will people know that you're the king?"

The frog looked rather proud of himself before hopping away for a moment, returning with something else on his head. Igneel immediately recognized one of the stick crowns that Natsu had made before, with little sprigs of grass and stone shoved between branches all over. The other frogs made a fuss, as if admiring the new crown and the King turned a couple ways to show it off.

Natsu was beyond thrilled at the second gesture of friendship and clutched the crown tightly. "I promise that I'll take really good care of it!"

The King nodded happily and Natsu smiled one last time before turning to climb up on Igneel's back.

"Goodbye everyone!"

Igneel took a moment to give the Frog King a nod of thanks before unfurling his wings. He would look back upon their time here as good for certain.

"Goodbye Bell!"

Igneel barely had time to glance behind himself and see a speck of light bobbing near the forest floor before crashing through the trees one last time.

Dragon: So, hello all! You probably hate me or something right now and I'm just going to come out and say that I have no real excuse for leaving you guys like this for so long. I've been having PM's and reviews almost every day for the past two years, even been getting comments on my other stories of people asking me to continue this and I must say that I'm really touched.

There is a real reason why I stalled in writing this in the first place though. I tend to fandom hop a lot (And not just with other people's work, I'm probably working on maybe 30 different book ideas at the same time here, my documents folder looks like someone's idea book threw up and then exploded all over inside it. It's hard to close now) and when I'm not in a certain fandom or mood the quality of my writing goes down. Maybe not enough for you readers to notice too much, but when I'm editing I just end up feeling like I want to slap myself. I haven't been in the Father mood in probably two years and even the last two chapters I put up were hard to do.

I'm still technically not in the mood to write this, but I just feel so bad leaving it unfinished and having people literally begging me to continue. I suppose if you have anyone to really thank it would be Roughdiamond5. I've been playing with a Big Four idea and she knows how torn up I am about this whole fiasco so she made a deal with me that I couldn't write the Big Four until I finished Father and she would reward me with some flirty Jack Frost short fics.

So, when I started this, I had no f***ing clue where it was going. I tried to make plans and charts and all, but things just started getting confusing in the actual manga and Father doesn't seem to fit in anywhere canonically, which is why I changed the description to AU earlier. I have basic ideas of plot points, but no idea how they connect. This made me rather upset and got me to slow down my writing as well. When I started this I thought that it would end up being around 40 chapters with everything I wanted to happen, but at this point I think it'll be around 20, with me just highlighting father-son bonding moments and really strong plot points. There might be pieces left that won't be put in the puzzle, like where Igneel went after he left Natsu, but they shouldn't be too important to the real focus of what I'm putting here, which is the basic relationships of the dragons and the dragon slayers. I'm probably going to end up doing a back and forth between Igneel going to the Dragon Council so we can see the plot moving forward, and the father-son fluff moments that I wanted to be the main focus of this fic.

I hope that no one is too upset with me. I came back at least! I've seen plenty of fics that were just stopped with no explanation (I'm so sorry) and never updated until the author finally admitted they won't continue, but leaving unfinished business behind, especially when so many people care about it, is not my style.

So…greetings from college from an English-Creative Writing major, and I hope that all the studying I've put in this past year will show a significant improvement in my writing skills from here on :)


	10. One of Them

Dragon: So, I actually went back and edited all the old chapters and…wow. Why do you guys like my writing again? I realized I literally gave three different time ranges of when the dragon council was held, in some chapters I still had it that Natsu was _born with pants_, and at one point I introduced Thanatos as "The Black Dragon," that he was heartless, and that Igneel didn't know him at all.

Lucy: I thought you fixed the pants thing before.

Dragon: -sighs- I thought so too, Lucy…I thought so too…

Natsu: Who's Thana-toast?

Happy: I don't think it matters.

Dragon: You should remember him Natsu.

Natsu: Wha?

Dragon: You met him before!

Natsu: Who?

Dragon: The Black Dragon!

Natsu: -thinks- Oh yeah! You mean the one that—

Dragon, Lucy, + Happy: -slap their hands over his mouth

Dragon: HUGE spoilers there!

Lucy: Bad Natsu!

Natsu: Mrrfff drrr mrr ddrr?!

Happy: So I noticed we didn't do any responses to reviews last time?

Dragon: Because there were so many between the chapter before and the last one that the answer column would be longer than the actual story. We'll continue for now, but if the review count exceeds 10 for each chapter I'm going to limit them so they don't take up so much space. Guest reviews come first because I can't PM responses to them and after that it will be ones that we can really talk back to, not just the "I love your story!" ones.

Happy: But won't some people be sad that you didn't pick theirs?

Dragon: We'll PM them answers. I don't like leaving any review unturned, really. I feel so happy receiving each and every one of them and I want to make sure you guys know how much I appreciate you taking the time to write them out!

Natsu: -breaks free of the hands- So we get to keep doing authors notes?!

Dragon: Yeah, it's kind of tradition by now so I'll keep it going in this fic at least.

Lucy: -breathes a sigh of relief- Safe.

Dragon: For now.

Happy: -gulps- Fairy Tail © Hiro Mashima

Dragon: For now…

Igneel brushed a tree branch aside, glaring from the inside of the woods at the village that sat unassumingly by. No one there could guess that there was a dragon watching them from within the foliage nearby and Igneel wanted it to stay that way. For today, they were there to observe and nothing more. Though if he knew his son, he was certain that it would turn out to be more than what he planned.

Said boy poked his head out from coverage as well, being much less stealthy and far more overexcited for the exploration of new things. Igneel noticed him inching forward through the brush, just dying to rush forward and cause as much destruction and chaos as a little child could in a place where he understood nothing.

He sighed and pulled him back with one great claw. Natsu wasn't ready to meet other humans yet, he knew nothing about their culture, although he more or less understood their language, and would probably just cause trouble that would be difficult for a dragon to fix.

Igneel didn't exactly _like_ humans. But he also wasn't filled with an overwhelming desire to eat them or destroy their villages. He mostly just left them alone and would do so as long as they joined in. They had been fairly lucky so far in their travels and living choices, having never come upon any travelers in the woods they temporarily called home. But Igneel had recently come to the decision that humans were important creatures in their world, whether he liked it or not, and that Natsu had to be taught about them. Especially since he was leading the child on to believing that he was one of them.

"Igneel," Natsu whispered loudly.

"Natsu, you don't have to whisper. We're far enough away from the village that they won't hear us."

Natsu frowned for only a second before whispering again, "Are we gonna go there?"

"Not today."

He pouted and his attempt to be quiet was gone. "Why not?"

Igneel screwed up his face. "Well, because…humans don't like dragons very much."

"But I like you!"

"You're different from them. You're my son after all."

Natsu shuffled in the bush he was hiding in, causing quite a bit of noise while trying to get a better look at the phenomenon Igneel had described to him as a big home for lots of humans. He wasn't sure what to make of it yet, but could see lots of structures he'd only ever seen from the sky before standing up all over and figures walking to and fro between them.

He took a deep breath, relying on his best sense, and smelled a myriad of scents he wasn't familiar with. Some smelled clean, some smelled dirty, there was the smell of wood he assumed came from the houses, but each one was entangled with several other scents so that each one had its own personal print on his nose. It was so different from the woods! If he strained his ears he could hear voices as well, though couldn't tell what they were saying.

Igneel pulled him back slightly as one human came close to the edge of the forest and Natsu ducked his head down into the bush, trying his best to be sneaky while also getting as good of a look at the person as he could.

"Igneel! They're wearing pants too!"

The dragon rolled his eyes. "Yes, they are. Humans wear lots of clothes normally, not just pants, you know."

Natsu hummed in thought. Igneel had gotten his pants for him a while ago, as they were on their way from one forest to another. They had stopped for a break and Igneel had left for a couple minutes, saying he'd seen something nearby, and came back with the tan pants and drawstring that held them up. It had been confusing for both of them on how to put them on for a bit, but eventually they figured it out and Natsu treasured them as his first gift from his father.

But these people had a lot more on than pants, though they looked restricting and heavy from a distance. And what were those things strapped to their feet! Natsu remembered when he'd insisted on being covered in mud for a week when Igneel was gone and how difficult it was to move a lot of the time. That hadn't been fun. He had done it because his nose would hurt whenever he got a whiff of something too strong, but he was getting used to the multiple scents all around him every day. Even his pants were a little restricting sometimes! He couldn't imagine having clothes all over him!

But it was still fascinating to see someone who looked so much like him! With hair only on top of his head (though his guy had some under his nose too. Eh?), eyes right above a rather flat nose, smooth, tanned skin, and fingers that held a long tool in his hands.

Natsu watched the man walk to the edge of the forest and stop for a moment, examining the trees.

"Igneel, what's he doing?" he whispered up at his guardian.

The dragon chuckled. "Just watch," he whispered back.

After a moment or so where Natsu was practically bouncing and shaking the bush around him, the man lifted his tool up and swung it into the tree he'd been looking at. It hit with a _thwack_! Then the man pulled it out of the trunk and repeated the process again and again.

Natsu watched the action for a minute as wood was being chipped and stripped away before looking up again. "Igneel, what's he doing?"

"He's chopping that tree down with an axe."

Natsu's brow furrowed as he looked at the 'axe' again. "Why doesn't he just knock it down like you do?"

"That's because he's human. Human's aren't strong enough to just knock it down. They need to use tools to do a lot of things because they're not strong enough or talented enough otherwise."

Natsu looked over the town again and noticed again how much _stuff_ they had. They'd never had all that stuff and probably hadn't ever needed it, but now he was curious. "What else do they use cause they're not strong?"

Igneel thought for a moment. He wasn't really familiar with human culture or tools beyond basic knowledge. He'd never raised a Dragon Slayer before and he hadn't taken sides in the Great War, but at one point when he was younger dragons were a little more familiar with humans and each had at least a basic understanding of what the other's lives were like. He tried to dredge up some memories of dragons who were excited by humans and all their interesting inventions.

"They have these things called blankets."

"Blankets," Natsu repeated, thinking the word sounded powerful.

"Yes, they're these big pieces of fabric they wrap around themselves to keep themselves warm when it's cold outside or during the night when they are sleeping."

"So blankets protect them?" Natsu asked, trying to imagine such a strong invention. Amazing enough to strive off weather and protect them while most vulnerable! Blankets must be powerful indeed.

"Yes, but we don't need them," Igneel said, glancing up at the woodsmen, who had almost chopped halfway through the tree by now.

"Because we're stronger?"

Igneel hummed, careful not to blow out smoke from his nose as he was tempted to, lest he call attention to their position in the woods. "We have magic to protect us. Our scales keep us warm and protect us from many things."

"Magic does a lot of things, huh?"

Igneel smiled down at his boy. "That's right."

"TIMBER!"

Natsu jumped at the shout and the loud _Crack_ of wood as the tree gave way and began to crash through the trees around it on the way to the ground. He watched as the man nodded and moved to get started on another one.

Confused, the boy continued to watch the man _thwack_ away at the next tree even as he asked, "Why is he leaving it there?"

Igneel pondered this as well for a moment before pulling up an answer. "He's probably not strong enough to carry the tree on his own. So he's leaving it there until more humans come to help him lift it. Then they'll do whatever they want with the wood. Either burn it for fire, turn it into furniture, make a new house out of it…"

He looked down to see Natsu's eye sparkling. "They help each other!"

Igneel chuckled at the unexpected excitement. "That's right. When one human isn't enough to take care of something by themselves they get more humans to help them accomplish lots of things. It's the same with dragons. If one isn't strong enough, we ask for help."

"And if I ever need help I can ask you!"

"That's absolutely right."

"And if you need help then I can help you!" Natsu looked so happy about this that Igneel just couldn't tell him he was strong enough to never need it.

"That's right Natsu. I'm counting on you, you know?"

The little boy beamed excitedly. "Yeah! I'm going to get super strong so that you can always ask me for help Igneel!"

"Who's there!?"

Igneel's eyes narrowed slightly, realizing that Natsu had shouted that last comment, as the boy ducked down into his bush again. The dragon slowly leaned down so that the boy could climb up on the back of his neck. "That's our cue, Natsu. Let's leave before he finds us."

"Hello?"

The duo slunk quietly back into the woods, both pairs of eyes on the woodsmen who nervously looked about the forest. He could have sworn he heard a child's voice! Maybe it was one of the kids from the village? Though they weren't supposed to go playing in there without permission…he shivered, getting the eerie feeling that he was being watched before nervously going about his business.

Natsu was in _trouble_. Well, he was _going_ to be in trouble _for sure_. There was no way that Igneel wouldn't be mad at him! He did, after all, sneak into the human village all by himself.

He was ducking between the homes of the people who lived there, exploring mostly with his nose and looking out for anybody with his eyes. The first thing he'd noticed upon entering the village was how the ground was different from usual. Instead of the dirt and tiny stones covered in dead leaves and sticks the ground here was made either out of packed earth or smooth stones that had been set down in a pattern.

He'd taken a minute to look at these stones, trace his finger between the cracks where he could see sand and dirt underneath them or where little plants had started growing. He looked up as he realized how much less nature there was in the village and how much easier it was to see the sky. Normally he would have to look for a clearing or a source of water to be able to see the sky so clearly, but here you could look up and see it just about anywhere!

There were stars out at the moment and it was exciting to see so many of them at the same time. It would have been even better if he was standing on the roof of one of those houses, but he didn't want to cause too much noise and alert one of the people there that he had snuck into their big home gathering.

He then noticed a whole bunch of clothes that were hung up on a line outside a nearby house. He wondered if this was how Igneel had gotten his pants before, and then questioned why these people had put them out like this at all. And why they had so many! There were pants that he recognized, but he didn't really know the names of the other things that were hanging from the wires and strings.

He left the hanging clothes and continued to explore, hearing voices coming from one of the houses, he peeked in through the see through whole in the wall to the inside. He saw people sitting around a big piece of furniture on stumps that had been carved so they looked weird, and seemed to be eating. Though he wasn't sure why they were doing it so slowly and with those little pieces of metal.

He could hear talking and laughter as they chatted and could almost sense the warmth coming from in the house. He smiled and pressed his nose against the glass to try and sniff their meal. Again, so many scents came to him that he had trouble organizing them all. He would definitely have to practice smelling so that he could tell the difference between all the different ones.

He snuck around, finding entire bins full of things on the streets! There were so many things to discover in this place! He started digging through the bin, looking for more of these interesting tools that humans used to make themselves stronger. He pulled out a bunch of thin things that ripped as he pulled them out with too much strength.

He blinked and took it out more carefully then held it in front of himself as he tried to figure out what it was. After a moment, he realized there were words on this thing! He wasn't sure what it was, but there were words _all over_ it! He squinted in the dim light and made out the word '_Big_' and _'News,' _and though he didn't know what the second word meant it was still really exciting that he _could_ read it.

"Excuse me, little boy, are you lost?"

Natsu whipped around to the woman behind him. He had been so focused on the words he had found that he hadn't heard or smelled her approaching until she spoke up. She was much taller than he was, wearing something that was a one piece clothing that covered all of her and drooped so it touched the ground, and holding something that held a bit of flame in it.

He looked up at the person, thinking how she kind of looked like Bell, but much bigger and much less gold. Igneel had told him that humans don't like dragons, and that they were dangerous sometimes, so Natsu wasn't exactly sure what to do now that he was faced with one.

"Little boy? I don't recognize you from the village…are you a runaway? Where's your shirt and shoes? Did you lose them?"

Natsu huffed. This lady was asking so many questions! "What's a shirt?"

She blinked. "Um, you know? Something you wear over your chest and arms?"

So that's what those were called. "And shoes?"

The lady was amused now. She pulled up the hem of her skirt and showed him her feet, that were covered in those things he thought looked terrible. "These are shoes."

Natsu scrunched up his nose. "You like them?"

She laughed. "Well, they look nice. And they protect my feet from the ground."

Natsu frowned. He still didn't like them.

The woman pointed to the words he was holding with her free hand. "Why do you have a newspaper? Is there something going on you want to know about?"

Natsu looked down at the thing in his hands. 'News' was one of the words he'd read! He looked down at the thing. A paper with news! Rather proud of himself for figuring that out, he pointed to the thing she was holding and asked what that was as well.

"It's called a lantern," she answered, now looking confused. Why didn't this boy know any of these things?

He frowned at how he couldn't figure out what it was from the name again. "What's it do?"

"Um, it gives off light so I can see in the dark. I use oil and fire in mine, but some people use lacrima to make light."

_Another_ word he didn't know! How many of them are there? "What's a lacrima?"

The woman frowned and leaned down so that they were at eye-level. "What's your name?"

"Natsu," he answered, still looking at the flame. It looked tasty!

The woman smiled kindly. "My name is Anna. Natsu, do you know where your parents are?"

"I know where my father is!"

"Is he looking for you?"

He glanced behind himself to the woods and took a smell of the air, trying to tell if Igneel was nearby or not. He couldn't smell the great fiery lizard, but couldn't be sure if he was there or not, since there were so many smells between himself and the woods.

"Um…maybe…"

The woman huffed, but gave him a kind look. "Don't you think that he's worrying about you? Shouldn't you go back to him before he gets scared?"

Natsu puffed up his chest. "Igneel's never scared!" He deflated a moment later. "But…yeah, he might be looking for me." He winced. "He's probably going to be angry."

She smiled and leaned over to ruffle his hair. "Then don't you think you should go back?"

Natsu smiled and nodded quickly before holding up the newspaper he had scrunched up in his hands. "Can I have this too?"

She quirked her head at him. "Didn't you get that out of the trash?"

He tipped his own head right back. "What's trash?"

She sighed. "Go ask your dad, sweetie."

"Okay!"

With a crumpled newspaper in his hands, Natsu left the town and happily ran back to the forest where Igneel was supposedly still sleeping. He had met a human! And she wasn't scary or dangerous, she was nice! She had explained to him what shirts, shoes, newspapers, and lanterns were! Though he'd have to ask Igneel what a 'lacrima' was later.

He returned to the shelter he and Igneel had for the time to see the dragon's eyes wide open with an expectant look in them. Natsu grinned, having forgotten that Igneel would be mad, and held out the newspaper as he ran toward him.

"Igneel! Look what I got!"

Without any forewarning, Igneel's tail whipped around and smacked Natsu over the head, sending the boy sprawling into the dirt. Natsu sputtered for a moment, the newspaper completely crumpled underneath him now.

"Igneel, why did you—"

He stopped as he saw his father's eyes narrow angrily. "Oh, um…"

"You were in the human village." It wasn't a question and Natsu could only wince as he sat up.

"Um…yeah…"

"Did you see anyone?"

"Y-yeah."

"What did they say?"

Natsu had the gall to smile. "She taught me what other clothes are! Shirts and shoes! And there are these things called lanterns that people use to make light and hold fire. But she said that most people use these things called lacrima and told me to ask you what those are." His spiel over, he remembered that he was in trouble. "Um, Igneel, are you gonna get mad at me again?"

To both of their surprise, Igneel started laughing. He had assumed that at some point Natsu would go to the village to investigate, but knew he was smart enough to keep himself safe in such a small town. He had known that Natsu was faking sleep when they went to bed and had watched him through a slit in his eyelids. He watched Natsu as he 'snuck' away and followed at a distance, tracking his scent until he reached the edge of the woods. He couldn't see Natsu again for a bit until he came running back from around the corner of a building and rushed back to their shelter.

He hadn't gotten hurt and had been smiling widely with the paper in his hands when he came back. Igneel had _NOT_ been worried for him previously! He knew his son was strong enough to take on just about anything he needed to and in such a small village there wasn't really anything he had to fear. Even so, if Natsu had come back crying or wasn't returned to him by morning he _would _have burned down the entire village looking for him.

Of course he couldn't just let Natsu get away with this, which was why he had knocked him over when the boy got back, but there was no harm done, and Igneel saw nothing wrong with the boy sating his own curiosity. It seemed like he'd had a pleasant experience too. Igneel wasn't sure if he approved of humans or not, but it seemed that Natsu did.

The boy held up the paper he had, though Igneel wasn't too sure what all of it was. Was this something the humans had invented since the last time they'd been in touch with the dragons? It was just paper, so other than a paper cut it wasn't dangerous at all.

"It's a newspaper, Igneel! It has _news_!"

Igneel laughed. No kidding.

"I can read it, Igneel! With the letters you taught me!"

The dragon felt a swell of pride. "Good job, Natsu. Where did you get that from? Did the person you met give it to you?"

Natsu was inspecting the tear in the paper with a pout. "The person told me I got it from the trash. What's a trash, Igneel?"

He chuckled. "It's a place where humans put all their things that they don't want or need anymore. Their tools break sometimes and when they can't use them anymore they put them in the trash. And that trash is taken someone else. Or sometimes burned."

Natsu brightened at this. "With fire?"

Still smiling, Igneel nodded. "Yes, with fire."

"And they eat it, right?"

"Hmm, no, normal humans don't eat fire."

This was the most shocking news to Natsu all night. "They don't eat fire?! But I thought everyone eats fire!"

"That's another part of the Dragon Slayer magic, Natsu. It allows you to eat fire."

The boy hummed in thought. "Okay…Oh! I saw people eating with little shiny stick things too! And sitting on these stumps that all looked weird! And eating things that didn't look like squirrels or fish! And what are lacrima? And why do people hang their clothes up? And how come they have holes in their walls with things in the way? And why…"

Igneel sighed as Natsu continued to question the world of the humans that mystified even him. He could tell that this was going to be a very long night.

Dragon: So the pants are finally introduced. If you have read the other chapters before now and remember me mentioning them before, I went through and took out all references to them. I had originally written it so that Natsu had pants from the first chapter, but that really didn't make any sense so I took them out.

Lucy: Wow, so it was nearly a year before you met anyone else who could hold up a conversation other than Igneel?

Natsu: Yeah, I guess? Is that important?

Lucy: Well, I thought so…

Happy: How mean, you forgot about the frogs and Bell!

Lucy: Wait, how did this turn into me being mean!?

Dragon: It usually does. It still surprises you?

Lucy: I was hoping by now it would stop!

Happy+Natsu: It will never stop.

Lucy: T^T

Dragon: Okay! So, um, onto the reviews!

Lucy: To Suyai, wow, all this support is going to make me blush! I didn't expect the King Frog to be so nice either! They started out on such bad terms but it turned out that they became friends, huh? Ah! You think that Natsu is actually END and that's why Igneel couldn't defeat him?

Natsu: Wouldn't I know if I was END though?

Dragon: Well it was mentioned by Silver that END is a fire demon, that's probably where Suyai got their idea from. I still think that Natsu's a dragon in disguise though ;) I do like Miyazaki actually! But I haven't watched any of his movies in a while ^_^' I don't know where the Frog King came from, really! I had just started by thinking about something for Natsu to meet and start to learn how to fight from and the Frog King just sort of happened!

Natsu: To Avengel Azrael, um…..okay? Magic is magic, right?

Dragon: Ahem, yes it is Natsu, but people without magic have a hard time comprehending it, so we come up with our own ideas for how it works.

Natsu: But magic is _magic_! It's not hard!

Lucy: Not everyone can use magic, remember, Natsu?

Dragon: In response to you Azrael, I kind of agree with you on your idea of how magic in the Fairy Tail universe works. I think it was actually explained one or two times in the manga but I can't remember, and I haven't really watched the animated series yet :\ I had read in another fanfiction somewhere (props to whoever can remind me!) that the Dragon Slayer lacrima that were implanted in the second generation Dragon Slayers were actually made from dragon's eyes. Hence why Arka, who has the same magic as Laxus, only has one eye. Those are all good ideas, but even if you don't agree with them, I would like to stick to my own theories for his fic ;)

Happy: That was a long response!

Dragon: It was a long review, so of course!

Happy: My turn! AHEM. To ArouraLeona, we were pretty happy she came back too! Lucy's good with making the most of what we had, but eventually we would stop getting support and would have to leave the house…

Lucy: You know that wouldn't be exactly bad, seeing how we've been away from the guild for a while…

Dragon: I rented you; you're here; now hush up about it!

Lucy: -grumbles- To SoulMore, Thanks for the support~!

Natsu: To gratsulover117, Dragon is just really lazy so it takes her a long time to get stuff done…

Dragon: That is-! Completely true…but I also don't want to just throw something together for you guys instead of giving you A-quality writing when I know I'm capable of it.

Lucy: I have my off days in writing too; it's okay!

Dragon: Lucy, you're the only one who gets me -_-lll

Natsu: How long is this review going to be?

Dragon: Ah-ha, you're right Nastu. Please continue to support us as we try and finish this fic for readers like you!


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